Soybean oil and linseed grains on performance and carcass characteristics of crossbred bulls finished in feedlot

This experiment was carried out to study soybean oil and linseed as feeding alternatives to improve the animal performance and the carcass characteristics of crossbred bulls finished in feedlot for 105 days. There were used 21 bulls with 18 months old randomized in three treatments (n=7): control (CON) which offered concentrate based on corn; soybean oil + linseed grains (LS1); soybean oil + linseed grains (LS2) that had an experimental time divided in two periods: 60 days with soybean oil and the remaining 45 days with soybean oil + linseed grains. No differences (P>0.05) were observed among treatments on the initial body weight (343 kg), final body weight (501 kg), average daily gain (1.50 kg), hot carcass weight (262 kg), carcass dressing (52.4%), fat thickness (5.40 mm), Longissimus area (88.0 cm(2)), Longissimus area/100 kg (33.7 cm(2)) dry matter conversion (8.00 kg DM/1 kg of body weight), dry matter intake (11.8 kg), dry matter intake/live body weight (2.80%), crude protein intake (1.20 kg), gross energy intake (52.9 Mcal/day), acid detergent fiber intake (2.30 kg), acid detergent fiber intake/100 kg of live body weight (0.50%), neutral detergent fiber intake (2.38 kg) and neutral detergent fiber intake/100 kg of live body weight (0.90%). Therefore, soybean oil and linseed can be used to replace corn in beef cattle diets without reducing the animal performance and the carcass characteristics.