Animal performance of feedlot Santa Gertrudis steers fed diets with different protein sources and corn silage, with or without inoculant

The present work was carried out to evaluate the effect of diets with different protein sources of ruminal degradability and corn silage prepared with or without the inoculant PIONEER 1174 on animal performance. A factorial experiment was conducted, where the protein sources (meat and bone meal, urea and a mixture of both [50:50]) were combined with two types of silage, composing six treatments. Thirty six 3.5 years old Santa Gertrudis steers were randomly assigned to the treatments. There were no difference between treatments for dry matter intake, not even when the interactions were made among protein sources or types of silage. For average daily gain there were no significant differences among treatments, but the interactions among protein sources were significant. Animals fed diets with meat and bone meal showed higher weight gain than those fed urea. Contrasts between types of silage did not show any difference.