ABSTRACT
The objective was to evaluate the effect of the use of a non-forage diet in feeding finished sheep in a feedlot regarding intake, nutrient digestibility, performance, ingestive behavior, and cost analysis with feed. The experiment was performed in a completely randomized complete block, with two treatments and eight blocks per treatment. The treatments were the control diet (30 of hay and 70% of concentrate, dry matter (DM) basis, normally used in the finishing system in Brazil) and the non-forage diet (100% concentrate). Animals fed non-forage diets had lower nutrient intake and metabolizable energy (ME) intake. Even though the animals that received a non-forage diet presented lower intake of DM, organic matter (OM), and crude protein (CP), there was no effect (p < 0.05) for the digestibility coefficients of these variables between diets. The time spent in rumination, total chewing, and idleness also decreased (p < 0.05) when lambs were fed a non-forage diet, due to the decreased DM intake. The profit margin value of US$10.395/animal reached by sheep fed the control diet was higher than the profit margin obtained by sheep that received the non-forage diet (US$−3.974/animal). The non-forage (pelleted) diet led to lower bio-economic performance, and its exclusive use in sheep finishing is not recommended.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.