Effectiveness of cottonseed cake fibre included in the diet of Nellore steers finished in confinement
Angelo Herbet Moreira Arcanjo, Luís Carlos Vinhas Ítavo, Camila Celeste Brandão Ferreira Ítavo, Alexandre Menezes Dias, Gelson dos Santos Difante, Gumercindo Loriano Franco, Vanessa Zirondi Longhini, Fernanda de Kássia Gomes, Omar Ali, Juliana Caroline Santos Santana, Antônio Leandro Chaves Gurgel, Anderson Ramires Candido, Carolina Marques Costa
Abstract
ABSTRACT It was aimed to evaluate the use of cottonseed cake (CSC) as a source of physically effective neutral detergent fibre (peNDF) to replace corn silage (CS) in diet of feedlot‐finished cattle. The design used was completely randomised, with 2 treatments (30% CSC and 30% CS) and 12 replications. There was interaction between fibre source and nutrient in the material retained in the Penn State Particle Separator. The highest concentrations ( P = 0.0001) of peNDF and the in vitro digestibility of peNDF (DpeNDF) were for CSC. There was a higher ( p < 0.05) dry matter intake (DMI) and neutral detergent fibre (NDF) intake (NDFI) by the animals on the CSC diet. The CSC‐fed steers showed higher ( P = 0.0001) final body weight (BW) and total weight gain. The steers fed CSC showed a longer ( P = 0.0001) feeding time, feed efficiency, and lower rumination time ( P = 0.0001) and rumination efficiency ( P = 0.0001). There were positive correlations between the variables: rumination time × intake, rumination time × NDFI and peNDF × DpeNDF. It was observed that there was a negative correlation between the variables: rumination time × peNDF, rumination time × DpeNDF, NDFI × peNDF, and NDFI × DpeNDF. Cottonseed cake is an alternative source of peNDF for feedlot beef cattle.