Springer (part of Springer Nature), Tropical Animal Health and Production, 6(47), p. 1083-1088
DOI: 10.1007/s11250-015-0830-7
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The effect of the replacement of corn with the liquid residue of cassava was evaluated at levels of 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100 % in the diets of sheep on the intake and nutrient digestibility, weight gain, and carcass characteristics. Forty non-castrated crossbred Santa Ines sheep at 4 months of age and an initial body weight of 19.5 ± 2.5 kg were slaughtered after 90 days at the feedlot. A quadratic effect was found for intake of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), non-fiber carbohydrates (NFC), and digestible OM, with estimated values of 1130, 1080, 558, and 777 g/day at 11.2, 11.9, 30.8, and 2.18 % of replacing corn with liquid residue of cassava, respectively. However, the intake of crude protein (CP) and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) decreased linearly around 105 to 45.3 g CP/day and 413 to 284 g NDF/day. The same effect was found for digestibility of DM (715 to 649 g/kg), OM (725 to 669 g/kg), CP (801 to 759 g/kg), and NDF (486 to 379 g/kg), which decreased linearly as the dietary liquid residue of cassava increased. The maximum average daily gain (174 g/day) was estimated with a 22.4 % replacement level. Liquid residue of cassava can replace up to 25 % of the corn in the diets of sheep, since it was possible to obtain a gain above 100 g/day, which is considered to be satisfactory.