Abstract

Ma. Lourdes I. Dormido, Lucia C. Sanchez and Ma. Lourdes T. Escarrilla

Sugarcane by-products such as cane tops, molasses and bagasse were ensiled with urea and sodium hydroxide for sixty days and changes in proximate analysis and Total Digestible Nutrients (TDN), indicative of the relative energy value of a food to an animal, were evaluated for each treatment.

Differences in crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber, per cent ash and TDN were highly significant among the treatments after ensilage. The statistically highest TDN of 75.36 after ensilage was observed on T5 (0 cane tops, 85% bagasse, 15% molasses + urea) and this was statistically comparable to T1 (0 cane tops, 85% bagasse and 15% molasses) and T6 (42.5% cane tops, 42.5% bagasse, 15% molasses + urea) with TDN values of 74.68 and 72.05 respectively.

Urea significantly increased the crude protein after ensilage while sodium hydroxide increased the ash content before and after ensilage.

The TDN values of the different mixtures before and after ensilage showed little differences, which proved that the process of ensilage was able to conserve and stabilize the nutrient values of mixtures of cane tops, molasses and bagasse both in he presence and absence of chemical additives such urea and sodium hydroxide.

http://www.sra.gov.ph/abstract/

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