Nutritional value of babassu cake as replacement for roughage in heifers feed
Keywords:
Agroindustry by-product. Alternative feeds. Nutritive value. Orbignya speciosa. Weight gain.Abstract
The objective of this study was to evaluate intake, digestibility and performance of dairy heifers fed diets containing increasing levels of babassu cake (0; 100; 200 and 300 g kg-1 of dry matter- DM) replacing the sugarcane treated with calcium oxide. Twenty-four heifers with initial average weight of 190.8 + 40.8 kg, distributed in a completely randomized design were used. The dry matter intake (DMI), neutral detergent fiber intake (NDFI) and acid detergent fiber intake (ADFI), as %BW and g BW-0.75, presented increasing linear response. The organic matter intake (OMI) showed increasing linear, increasing by 40 g day-1; 0.017% BW and 0.66 g BW-0.75 for each 10 g kg-1 of increase of babassu cake in the diet. The apparent digestibility of dry matter (ADDM) and organic matter (ADOM) presented quadratic responses (P<0.05), where the minimums were 493 g kg-1 DM for 150 g kg-1 DM and 526.5 g kg-1 DM for 320 g kg-1 MS of roughage replacing, respectively. The final average weight was not altered, presenting the value of 299.7 + 45.5 kg. The daily weight gain (DWG) presented quadratic response, with higher DWG at 190 g kg-1 DM of replacing. The feed conversion of DM was not affected by the inclusion of babassu cake, with an average of 4.6 + 0.74 kg of DM kg-1 of gained. Babassu cake can replace hydrolyzed sugarcane in heifers diet up to 300 g kg-1 DM with greater weight gains occurred with 190 g kg-1 MS of replacement.