Nutritional values of sugarcane products in local Caribbean growing pigs

Abstract

A total of 24 castrated male Creole were used for digestibility studies on three sugarcane (SC) products: final molasses, SC juice and ground SC. Digestibility of macronutrients were determined in three consecutive experimental trials between 35 and 60 kg BW. The first trial measured the effect of a constant rate of incorporation of those SC products in a control diet (23% on a dry matter (DM) basis) on digestibility of energy and nutrients. The second and the third trials were designed to determine the effects of increasing rates of inclusion of SC juice and ground SC in the control diet on the digestibility of nutrients and energy. The DM content of molasses, SC juice and ground SC were 74.3%, 19.3% and 25.8%, respectively. Free sugar contents were 73.8%, 81.6% and 51.5% of DM for molasses, SC juice and ground SC, respectively. In contrast with molasses and SC juice, NDF content of ground SC was very high (40.3% DM). Energy digestibility coefficients (DC) were 99.0% and 83.6% for SC juice and molasses, respectively. For ground SC, amounts and composition of intakes differed from feed allowance as a consequence of chewing-then-spitting out most of the fibrous contents of ground SC. Expressed as a percentage of energy intake and energy allowance, DC of energy for ground SC were 68.6% and 31.9%, respectively. On an intake basis, digestible energy (DE) and metabolisable energy (ME) values were higher for SC juice (17.3 and 17.2 MJ/kg DM, respectively) than for molasses (13.1 and 12.6 MJ/kg DM, respectively) or ground SC (12.3 and 11.8 MJ/kg DM, respectively). On an allowance basis, the corresponding values for ground SC were only 5.7 and 5.6 MJ/kg DM, respectively. The gradual inclusion rate of SC juice in the diet up to 66% resulted in a linear increase of the DC of the diet organic matter and energy (P , 0.001) by 0.10% per 1% in SC juice DM. On the other hand, the partial substitution of the control diet by ground SC up to 74% resulted in a linear (P , 0.05) reduction of digestibility of nutrients and energy. Each 1% increase of ground SC incorporation rate resulted in a 0.13% and 0.61% linear decrease of DC of the energy, expressed as a percentage of energy intake or energy allowance, respectively. In conclusion, our study provides updated energy values of SC products usable as energy sources for feeding pigs.

Ensiled citrus pulp as a by-product feedstuff for finishing pigs: nutritional value and effects on intestinal microflora and carcass quality

“…In those areas, citrus pulp is usually commercialized fresh or ensiled, since drying is not costeffective. The direct use of forages or fresh products in pig feeding has been mainly developed in tropical countries such as Vietnam, Colombia or Guadeloupe but also in United States and European countries such as The Netherlands (Rijnen et al, 2001;Leterme et al, 2005;Xandé et al, 2010;Crosswhite et al, 2013) although its use is still limited in pigs. Ensiling implies a fermentation process that might improve palatability and reduce microbial contamination (Kayouli & Lee, 1998), but also can change the nutritional value of the raw material.…”

Effects of the level of sugarcane molasses on growth and carcass performance of Caribbean growing pigs reared under a ground sugarcane stalks feeding system

“…This allowance was re-evaluated three times during the experiment (at 30, 40, 50 kg BW). Because of the low crude protein content of the sugarcane (Xandé et al 2009a), the GCS diet was supplemented with 350 g/d of a soya bean meal supplement. This amount of CP supplement was calculated to meet the protein requirement of CR pigs with an average growth rate of 500 g/d (Renaudeau et al 2006).…”

Sugarcane‐derived animal feed

“…Whole sugarcane (i.e., stalk, juice, tops, and trash) is used extensively in the tropics and subtropics as a roughage source for the production of cattle , Hulshof et al 2012, Pedreira et al 2012, Rotta et al 2014, pigs (Xande et al 2009(Xande et al , 2010, sheep (Magana et al 2009, Cutrim et al 2012, and goats (Cabral et al 2009). Although not for human consumption, it is interesting to note that sugarcane (either processed using cryogenic grinding or pelleting) has been assessed as an additive to the diets of mice (Wang et al 2007(Wang et al , 2012 and cats (Fischer et al 2012) to improve their digestive and, hence, general health.…”

“…While whole sugarcane contains significant amounts of soluble sugars that can support rapid microbial growth in the rumen (Xande et al 2010), the overall nutritional value of whole sugarcane is relatively low compared with other animal feed ingredients (such as corn meal, soybean meal, and rice bran) (Cutrim et al 2012) because of relatively low levels of protein and minerals (Kutty and Prasad 1980), and relatively low digestibility of the polysaccharides in the fibers from the leaves and stalk (Patil et al 1999, Xande et al 2009). However, despite this, the value of whole sugarcane in global animal production cannot be understated; for example, Brazil has the largest commercial cattle herd in the world with more than 217 million cattle (FAOSTAT 2014) and, given its preeminence as a sugarcane producer, it is no surprise that fresh chopped sugarcane is used as the primary source of roughage in finishing diets in a significant proportion (∼15%) of Brazilian feedlots (Oliveira and Millen 2014).…”

“…The majority (i.e., 83%) of the organic matter in sugarcane juice consists of soluble sugars (i.e., sucrose, glucose, and fructose), while the remainder consists of chlorophyll, tannins, wax, and fibers (Rostagno 2005). Given its high-soluble sugar content, the energy in sugarcane juice is almost 100% accessible to pigs (Xande et al 2010). …”