Influence of fibrolytic enzymes on growth performance and digestion in steers grazing stargrass and supplemented with fermented sugarcane

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the influence of exogenous fibrolytic enzymes on growth performance and digestion in steers grazing stargrass and supplemented with concentrate and sugarcane fermented. Solid state fermentation of sugar cane (SSFSC) was whole sugarcane chopped, added (dry matter basis) with urea (1.5%) and mineral premix (0.5%), and kept under shadow for 24 h. Twenty crossbreed (Brahman × Brown Swiss) steers (287±14.1 kg) grazing stargrass were individually supplemented with SSFSC (free access for 1-h period) and concentrate (1 kg/head) by 100 d. Steer were randomly assigned to concentrate with 0, 15 or 30 g fibrolytic enzyme/kg concentrate. As enzyme level increased, daily gain, intake, digestion, and improved feed conversion were linearly improved.