Rodrigues Magalhaes et al., 2008. Rev. Bras. Zoot., 37 (3): 529-537

This work was carried out with the objective to evaluate the effect of replacement of soybean meal by common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) residue in rations for milking cows on the following variables: intakes and total apparent digestibilities of nutrients, milk production and composition and feeding efficiency. Twelve Holstein cows were randomly assigned to three 4 ´ 4 balanced latin square design. The animals was fed ad libitum total mixed rations, which contained 0; 13; 26 and 39% of raw common bean residue in the concentrate, in substitution of soybean meal. Dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), non fiber carbohydrates (NFC) and total digestible nutrients intakes were linear depressed by the increasing levels of common bean residue in the concentrate. Neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and indigestible neutral detergent fiber (iNDF) intakes were not affected by the diets and crude protein (CP) and ether extract (EE) intakes presented cubic behavior. The digestibility coefficients (DC) of DM, OM, EE and NDF were not affected by the diets while DC of CP and NFC presented linear decreasing and increasing behavior, respectively. Milk production and composition (fat, protein, lactose, non fat and total dry extracts), as expressed in kg/day, presented linear decreasing for the increasing levels of substitution. No difference was observed for feeding efficiencies among diets. The inclusion of common bean residue in the diets prejudiced the performance of the animals.