The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of replacing soybean meal with treated castor meal with (CMT) or without lime (CMNT) on the nutrient intake, performance, carcass characteristics, and yield of commercial cuts of beef cattle from a feedlot. Thirty male, castrated, crossbreed zebu cattle were used in the study, with an average initial weight of 360±30.27 kg. Five animals were used as a control group and were slaughtered at the beginning of the experiment; the remaining animals (n = 25) were distributed in random blocks (repetitions), with body weight as the criterion for block assignment. The animals were fed a diet containing 65% corn silage and 35% of concentrate on dry matter (DM) basis. Five diets consisted of four levels of soybean meal (SM) substituted with CMT (0, 33, 67 and 100%) on a DM basis and a diet with 100% of SM replaced with CMNT. At the end of the experiment, all animals were slaughtered, and their gastrointestinal tracts were emptied to determine their empty body weights (EBW). No significant effects were observed (p>0.05) for the substitution of soybean meal with CMT on intake of dietary nutrients, the average daily body weight gain (ADG) or EBW gain (EBWG). In spite of greater (p<0.05) ricin intake for the diet containing CMNT (3.06 mg/kg BW) compared to the CMT diet (0.10 mg/kg BW/d), there were no effects (p>0.05) on intake of dietary nutrients, ADG or EBWG. The average intake of DM and the ADG were 10,664.63 and 1,353.04 g/d, respectively. Regarding carcass characteristics, only carcass yield in relation to body weight was linearly reduced (p<0.05) upon substitution of SM by CMT. There was no effect (p>0.05) of the substitution of SM by CMT or CMNT on the yield of carcass basic cuts. CMT prices that are higher than 85% of the SM price do not economically justify the use of CMT. For CMT prices between 20 and 80% of the SM price, the optimal level was 67% substitution, while for prices below 15% of the SM price, the optimal level was 100% substitution with CMT. It can be concluded that treated castor meal with 6% lime can totally replace soybean meal in beef cattle diets.

This study was aimed to perform a screening of Lactobacillus buchneri strains from maize silage and use them as inoculant in maize and sugarcane silages. In all, 151 lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains were isolated from whole‐plant maize silage, and their identification was based on the sequence analysis of 16S rDNA. In total, 15 strains were categorized to the L. buchneri group and eight of these were selected based on growth rate and fermentation pattern. The selected strains were evaluated on fermentation and aerobic stability of maize and sugarcane silages. For maize, the inoculated silages had lower pH and higher LAB population, but lower acetic acid concentration in comparison with the untreated control silage. For sugarcane silage, the strains 56.1, 56.4 and 40788 resulted in highest dry‐matter (DM) content and lowest DM losses. However, only the strain 40788 showed lowest counts of yeasts and moulds. Sugarcane silages inoculated with the strains 56.9, 56.26 and the untreated control silage showed highest concentrations of lactic acid and ethanol, besides the great DM losses. Even so, for both crops, the aerobic stability was not affected by inoculation. After air exposure, all silages increased temperature and had high population of yeast and moulds. Nevertheless, the strains 56.1 and 56.4 are promising for use as a silage inoculant.

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The objective of this chapter was to discuss the importance of the fermentation processes for silage making and how it affects the final quality of the silage. The preservation of the forage crops as silage is based on a fermentation process that lows the pH and preserves the nutritive value of the fresh crop. The main principle is the production of lactic acid by the lactic acid bacteria from the metabolism of the water-soluble carbohydrates in the fresh crop. However, different fermentations may occur into the silo environment and it depends on the availability of substrate, the microbial populations, the moisture content, and the buffering capacity of the crop at the ensiling. The fermentation is quite important in the ensiling process because it affects the nutritional quality of the silage and the animal performance. If the fermentation does not occur as recommended and the undesirable fermentations will take place, which will result in a total spoiled feed that is potentially risky for animals and human's health. Well-fermented silage can be used in diets for ruminant animals without any risk for their health and without compromise the productive performance.

This study was carried out to evaluate the effects of replacing soybean meal (SM) with castor bean meal supplemented (CBT) or not (CBNT) with calcium oxide on the intake, total, ruminal and intestinal apparent digestibility of dietary contituents, ruminal pH, and nitrogen ammonia concentration (NH 3 -N), ruminal degradation parameters, and on the ruminal microbial protein synthesis based on urinary purine derivatives excretion or purine bases in the abomasum. Were used 5 Bos indicus crossbreed castrated male cattle were used with average initial body weight of 360 ± 30 kg, fistulated in the rumen and the abomasum, in a 5 × 5 Latin square experimental design. The duration of each experimental period was 14 d, with 8 d of adaptation and 6 d of sampling. The 5 treatments consisted of 4 levels of replacement of SM with CBT (0, 33, 67 and 100% on the DM basis) and one treatment with 100% replacement of SM with CBNT. The diet consisted of 35 and 65% of concentrate and corn silage on the DM basis, respectively. It was verified that DM digestibility was reduced (P b 0.05) by alkaline treatment of the castor bean meal. With the exception to ruminal apparent digestibility of crude protein (RDCP), there was no effect of calcium oxide (P N 0.05) on the digestibility of other constituents. We observed an increase in RDCP of 24.2% (P b 0.05) for the CBNT treatment compared to the CBT. The intestinal digestibility of the dietary constituents was not affected by the percentage of SM replaced with CBT. However, alkaline treatment of the CBNT decreased (P b 0.05) the intestinal apparent digestibility of ether extract. There was no interaction (P N 0.05) between treatment and time for ruminal pH; however, ruminal pH was influenced (P b 0.05) by collection time, with a minimum value of 6.23 estimated at 5.8 h after food delivery. However there was an interaction (P b 0.05) between treatment and collection time for NH 3 -N concentration. There were no observed differences (P N 0.05) in excretion of nitrogenous compounds in the urine among the different castor bean meal treatments. The N-RNA to total microbial N ratio was not affected by the percentage of CBT, presenting an average of 0.138. No differences were detected (P N 0.05) between the two methods used to estimate the ruminal microbial protein synthesis. We conclude that castor bean meal supplemented with 60 g kg − 1 of calcium oxide can fully replace soybean meal in crossbreed finishing cattle diets.