THE NUTRITIVE-VALUE AND CHEMICAL-COMPOSITION OF ENERGY-RICH BY-PRODUCTS FOR RUMINANTS

The nutritive value and chemical composition of 29 energy-rich by-prod ucts are reported. These comprised two samples of imported dried citru s pulp, one of UK-produced dried citrus pulp, eight of locust bean mea l, two of maize gluten feed, one of pearled barley offal, eight of ric e bran, two of soya bean hulls, four of molassed sugar beet feed and o ne of unmolassed sugar beet feed. The crude protein (CP) content of th e feedstuffs ranged from 44 to 217 g kg-1 dry matter (DM), the lowest value being for locust bean meal and the highest for maize gluten feed . Total carbohydrates, calculated as the sum of neutral detergent fibr e (NDF), water-soluble carbohydrates (WSC) and starch contents, accoun ted for approximately 510-859 g kg-1 DM for all the feed types studied , and the highest value was found for rice bran, owing to a high starc h content (219 g kg-1 DM). The digestible organic matter in the DM (DO MD) contents measured in vivo were all within the range 686-838 g kg-1 , with the exception of rice bran and locust bean meal, which had much lower digestibilities (512 g kg-1 and 623 g kg-1, respectively). The metabolisable energy (ME) content of the feedstuffs varied over a rela tively wide range (8.2-13.2 MJ kg-1 DM), the lowest value being for ri ce bran and the highest for UK-produced dried citrus pulp. The ME cont ent of all the feedstuffs studied was predicted from a relationship wi th neutral detergent amylase-cellulase (NCD, g kg-1 DM) and acid eithe r extract (AEE, g kg-1 DM) as independent variables: ME = 0.0142 NCD+0 .0262 AEE, rsd = 1.19.