EFEITO DA CASTRAÇÃO EM BOVINOS CONFINADOS

With the increase of livestock in Brazil, there is a need for techniques that reduce the age of slaughter and present a final product of quality. The confinement using castrated animals allows reducing the age of slaughter, killing younger animals and producing a higher quality meat. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the use of castrated and uncastrated animals in feedlots, evaluating performance and carcass characteristics. The study was conducted at Premix Animal Feeding Research Center, 80 confined Nelore male, distributed in two treatments: castrated: castrated animals receiving concentrate and corn silage, including additives orizanol range + natural additive premium factor ; not castrated animals: not castrated animals receiving the same diet of castrated treatment. The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design, with two treatments with four replicates (bays with 10 animals each). The Tukey's test was used to compare means, being considered different when p <0.05. It can be concluded that not castrated animals are superior, in relation to performance, castrated animals are more eficiente too, and it is up to the producer to choose what is most advantageous to him.