LAUSR

The aim of this study was to evaluate the corn grain cracked substitution by sorghum grain, rehydrated corn silage, or rehydrated sorghum silage on animal performance. Thirty-two Nellore bulls initially weighing 324.76 ± 36.0 were used in a completely randomized design distributed in four treatments: corn grain (CG), sorghum grain (SG), rehydrated corn silage (RCS) and rehydrated sorghum silage (RSS). Pen was considered the experimental unit. Response variables included: final body weight (FBW) and dry matter intake (DMI). The basal diet consisted of (DM basis) of 30% sorghum silage as roughage, and 70% of concentrate, consisted of corn grain or sorghum grain or rehydrated corn silage, or rehydrated sorghum silage, soybean hulls, soybean meal, and mineral supplement. The data were analyzed using PROC GLM of SAS and means were compared by Tukey test. Feeding sorghum grain, rehydrated corn silage or rehydrated sorghum silage did not affect the DMI and, consequently, did not affect significantly the final body weight (FBW). The FBW means of each treatment were 444.38, 434.69, 464.22, 443.44, and the DMI were 9.57, 9.23, 9.06, 9.19, respectively to corn grain (CG), sorghum grain (SG), rehydrated corn silage (RCS) and rehydrated sorghum silage (RSS) treatments. It was concluded that diets based on corn grain or sorghum grain, rehydrated or not, can support a similar performance of Nellore bulls finished in feedlot.