Sugarcane Products & Byproduts in Animal Feeding

Sugarcane is an important industrial and cash crop in many countries of the world. Sugar production in many countries mostly depends on this crop, though a small quantity of sugar is also produced from sugarbeet. The crop is primarily for sugar, but sugarcane bagasse, cane tops, sugarcane field residues, press mud, juice and molasses form important byproducts. Sugarcane bagasse is the residue left after sugarcane is crushed to extract the juice. After sugar extraction, one third of the waste product generated is baggase. Average bagasse production is about 30 percent of the sugarcane crushed. About 90 percent of bagasse produced in sugarcane mills is used as fuel while remaining is used in paper industry and/or animal feed. Burning of bagasse also releases large quantities of smoke, soot, ash and carbon dioxide into the air with detrimental environmental effects. Sugarcane field residues, which consist of the tops and leaves of the sugarcane plant, are normally burned in the fields or otherwise disposed of. There is ample evidence that these residues, also called cane trash, could be used as animal feed. Similarly, the average quantity of tops available are about one third of the cane harvested that can also be used as a good source of forage for ruminants. Another byproduct of sugarcane is the mud perss. This by-product is acidic, rich in minerals and contain organic matter, which can be used for soil conditioning for better crop production and can be added in animal feed.
 Sugar cane molasses is a by-product of the manufacture or refining of sucrose from sugar cane. Standard sugarcane molasses contains 79.5° Brix (percent solids by weight) and not less than 48% total sugars expressed as invert sugar. Heavy mill-run blackstrap is more concentrated and contains 85° to 90° Brix. Blackstrap molasses is the ingredient most often used in molasses-based animal feeds. Sugarcane juice, which is composed predominantly of sucrose with smaller quantities of reducing sugars, is easily expressed from the stalk using simple 2- and 3-roll mills and is frequently consumed as a drink or is made into “brown” sugar at household level.  Its use in ruminant diets is limited due to the non-inducive nature of sucrase enzyme secretion in the digestive tract of the ruminants.
The sugar recovery from cane is hardly 8 percent as against 12-14 percent in other world sugar producing countries. Similar is the case with the proper utilization of sugar cane byproducts in animal feeding. No doubt sugar cane and its byproducts has been utilized in animal feed since long years age, but the potential benefits of feeding sugarcane and its byproducts are still awaited.
Trails have been conducted to optimize the benefits from feeding of sugarcane and its byproducts to ruminant animals. A variety of methods have been used to improve the nutritive value of sugarcane bagasse which is classified as poor quality feeds. Urea when used for treatment of sugarcane bagasse enhances the nutritional quality of straw. In terms of increased nitrogen/protein content, increased palatability and improved digestibility of cell wall contents. Naturally bagasse is not palatable as such but mixed ration containing 50% sugarcane bagasse, 17% groundnut cake, 4% wheat bran, 25% molasses, 1% urea, 1% salt and 2% mineral mixture is quite palatable to animals after adaptation and animals can be maintained on it. Digestibility of sugarcane bagasse can also be increased by steam treatment. Sugar cane tops contain less N than the concentration that is required for optimum fermentation in the rumen. It should be possible to augment the rumen fermentation of cane tops through judicious use of nitrogen rich supplements. Urea supplementation of cane tops revealed that the digestibility of OM can be increased.
Sugarcane has now becoming a focal point for activities directed at developing alternatives to cereal grains as a means of intensifying tropical livestock production. This shift is required due to the shrinkage of lands for fodder production and competition between human and poultry for grain utilisation.
Feeding trials conducted on crossbred cattle producing 10 to 12 litres of milk indicate that whole sugarcane can easily replace conventional fodder crops like sorghum with an average intake of 20.5 kg per day and dry matter digestibility ranging between 56 to 57 percent. Ensiling of sugarcane was tried along with 0.5 percent urea. A product with pH of 3.6, crude protein content of 6.25 percent and good acceptability by animals could be obtained. Trials conducted on ensiling of sugarcane tops with urea produced encouraging results and good quality silage could be obtained. Sugarcane bagasse Trials conducted with bagasse subjected to steam treatment using pressure of 5, 7 and 9 kg per cm2 for 30, 60 and 90 minutes, concluded the digestibility improved considerably with the treatment. However, the important change was in colour, smell and palatability of bagasse, making it an acceptable material (Rangnekar et al., 1982, 1986).
Keeping in view the above said scenario, the sugar cane products/byproducts can eb used effectively in animal feeding.