Trop Anim Prod 1980 5:2 117 SUGAR CANE JUICE AS CATTLE FEED: COMPARISONS WITH MOLASSES IN THE PRESENCE OR ABSENCE OF PROTEIN SUPPLEMENT

An experiment was carried out with fattening cattle to compare diets based on fresh sugar cane juice or final molasses in the absence or presence of 1 kg/d of sunflower meal. Urea was added to the juice (.5%) and to the molasses (2.5%) All animals received minerals and African star grass forage at the rate of 3 % of body weight (fresh basis). A total of 16 animals was used and the design was random block with a factorial arrangement of the main treatments. the cattle were mixed bulls and steers and crossbreds (Holstein or Brown Swiss on Zebu). Initial liveweight was approximately 270 kg and the trial period lasted 75 d. Feed intake and liveweight gain were significantly higher on juice than on molasses and in the presence, as compared with the absence of the sunflower meal. Supplementation increased growth rate on molasses from 252 g/d to 525 g/d whereas on cane juice the comparable values were 800 and 1,300 g/d, respectively. Liveweight gain was closely related with intake of soluble sugars and it is suggested that the better performance on the cane juice could perhaps be explained by the much lower content Or soluble minerals, which it was argued could be a factor restricting intake on final molasses. Key words Cattle, sugar cane juice, molasses, bypass supplements, growth and fattenin