RESUMO
A factorial experiment with completely randomised design was conducted, using 27 heads of 15 month buffalo male calves with initial live weight of 287 +/- 15 kg. The animals were individually housed and randomly allocated into 9 treatment groups of three animals each. Three levels of energy (E1, E2, E3) with three levels of crude protein (P1, P2, P3) were formulated to provide 90, 100 and 110% requirement equivalents for 900 g, expected body weight gain of steers derived from NRC beef cattle requirements (1976). Live weight changes were obtained by direct weighing of the animals every month and ended by slaughtering the calves for carcass index measurements. Results indicated that Dry Matter Intake (DMI) was not significantly different between treatments. Average Daily Gain (ADG) ranged from 503 to 951 g/animal that was significantly varied among the diets (p < 0.05). The significantly higher daily gain was obtained (p < 0.05) when animals received medium energy diets that was similar to 100% beef cattle steer requirements. In addition the feed conversion ratio was significantly lower, when the animals received medium energy diets (p < 0.05). The dressing yield as well as the meat % age was not affected by the type of the diet, but abdominal fat was significantly higher in medium energy diets (p < 0.05). It can be concluded that the optimum fattening performance of 15 month old buffalo male calves may be obtained by providing around 10.42 MJ/kg of dietary metabolisable energy and about 10.22% of crude protein.
