Effects of corn silage and corn silage with hay from xerophytic plants on sheep feeding

Abstract The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of partial inclusion of xerophyte hay in corn silage in the diet of twenty entire male sheep without a defined breed standard (NDRS) distributed in four diets with corn silage (CS), corn silage with gliricidia hay (CSG), corn silage with pornunça hay (CSP), corn silage with leucaena hay (CSL), evaluated using a completely randomized block design with five replications, which was established based on body weight initial 18 ± 2 kg. The differences observed in dry matter consumption (DM) and crude protein (CP) indicated higher levels for CSG (1.54 kg/day) and CSP (0.15 kg/day). The digestibility IVDDM (70.35%) and IVDNDF (60.31%) were superior for DM and average daily gain (ADG), as well as the best FC (= 6.93 kg). Mostly, the effects (P < 0.05) were obtained in the cuts, shoulder (P = 0.01), neck (P = 0.01), rib (P = 0.03), shank (P = 0.03), and matambre (P = 0.01). A smaller rib eye area (REA) was observed in the CSL diet cuts, but a more intense luminosity was also observed in L* (P = 0.01) and b* (P = 0.02). Thus, the inclusion of 25% xerophyte hay in the diet of NDRS sheep was neither nutritionally nor economically favourable.