The experimentwas developed at Instituto de Zootecnia in São José do Rio Preto,SP, and the objective was to evaluate the digestibility coefficients, the nutrientsintake, and the nitrogen balance of diets with 20% of corn silage and 80% ofconcentrate and 0, 25, 40 and 55% of citrus pulp in total dry matter, replacingcorn grain. Eight crossbred lambs, with nine months of age and 34 kg of liveweight,were fed in individual cages, where feces and urine could be separated. Duringsix days, feed, orts, feces and urine were weighed and sampled. The amount offeed offered was the mean of the intake in the last three days of the adaptationperiod. The experiment consisted of two phases, using the same animals, whichwere blocked by liveweight. Data were analyzed by regression. There was linearincrease in the apparent digestibility coefficients of the crude protein andof the acid detergent fiber with higher levels of citrus pulp. The digestibilitycoefficients did not differ and means were, respectively: 71.8, 73.3, 77.2,63.5, and 72.2%, for dry matter, organic matter, ether extract, neutral detergentfiber and hemicellulose. The total digestible nutrients mean was 72.39%. Increasingcitrus pulp in the diet caused a linear and significant increase of dry matterand total digestible nutrients intake by day and by metabolic weight. Similareffects were observed for the amount of ingested, absorbed, urinary and retainednitrogen. An increasing proportion of citrus pulp up to 55% of the dietary drymatter, replacing corn grain, resulted in improvement of the fiber utilizationand of the efficiency of nitrogen metabolism.
