Two groups of nine animals each, were fed either a conventional diet based on ground maize or whole maize and roughage protein – additive – mineral pellets in a cafeteria system. Both groups were fed ad libitum for a period of 105 days. No statistically significant differences could be found between the groups in any of the feedlot parameters used to evaluate growth and efficiency. An interesting protein-sparing effect was found on the free-choice whole maize and pellets cafeteria system, as opposed to the conventional diet or NRC recommendations.