Performance of confined steers fed with different corn hybrids silages

Abstract

This work aimed to evaluate the dry matter consumption, daily weight gain, feed conversion, digestibility and carcass characteristics of confined steers fed with silages from different corn hybrids. The treatments were the silages from the hybrids LG6030 PRO and P30B39H. The experimental design was totally randomized, with 6 repetitions, in a split-plot scheme, in three evaluation periods.  Animals fed with silage from hybrid LG6030 PRO showed a higher daily weight gain and better food conversion. The silage type did not alter (P>0.05) dry matter consumption, average carcass gain and carcass gain during the finishing period. However, the hybrid LG6030 PRO improved the efficiency transformation of consumed dry matter into carcass, despite the decrease of efficiency of transformation of weight gain into carcass (73,7 vs 76.9%) comparatively to animals fed with P30B39H silage. Diets containing the hybrid LG6030 PRO reflected in an increase of 3.4% of apparent digestibility. There were no differences of non-carcass components yield between the treatments in this experiment.  It is recommended LG6030 PRO for silage production.