Replacement of corn by cassava dregs in lambs' diet

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of replacing corn with cassava dregs (0, 330, 660 or 1000 g/kg on a dry matter basis) on the intake and digestibility of nutrients, feeding behavior, performance and metabolic profile of 40 non-castrated crossbred Santa Ines lambs, aged 5 months old with an average initial body weight of 20 +/- 1.87 kg. Due to the lower ether extract (EE) and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) content of cassava dregs, there was a quadratic effect (P < 0.05) on the intake of these nutrients, with a maximum value of 30.6 and 398 g/day at 281 and 173 g/kg of replacement corn by cassava dregs, respectively. The digestibility of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), and non-fiber carbohydrates (NFC) increased linearly (P < 0.05) with replacement. The duration of eating, rumination, chewing and idle, as well as the intake and rumination efficiency of DM, was not affected by replacement levels (P > 0.05), whereas the intake and rumination efficiency of the NDF showed a linear decrease (P < 0.05) with increasing amounts of cassava dregs. A quadratic effect was observed (P < 0.05) on total weight gain and average daily gain, with an estimated maximum value of 19.6 kg and 286.0 g/day with the 229 and 495 g/kg replacement levels, respectively. This study indicates that cassava dregs supplemented with urea can completely replace corn for lambs fed diets based on 300 g/kg of corn.