DESEMPENHO DE BOVINOS DE CORTE EM DIETAS DE GRÃO TOTAL

Brazil has the largest commercial herd in the world and today it is the
world's largest meat exporter. Livestock plays an important role in the Brazilian
economy. Currently, diets with total grain use have gained space in the
confinements, due to the practicality of handling. Therefore, an experiment with 12
crossbred males with mean weight of 271 kg and mean age of 15 months, kept in
individual stalls, was performed. The animals were kept in confinement regime for 82
days, distributed in two treatments, one with a 100% concentrate diet, considered a
total grain diet, and the other with a diet with 70% concentrate and 30% corn silage
(based on the dry matter), denominated conventional confinement diet. The animals
that received the total grain diet had a mean weight increase of 76 kg, while the
animals that received conventional diet had an average weight gain of 78 kg.
However, there was no significant difference between diets (P> 0.05). The weight
gain of the cattle in confinement was unsatisfactory. The weights of the animals were
similar receiving the different diets.