Utilization of Sugarcane Tops and Bagasse as Roughage Sources in Growing Bulls

Effects of feeding bagasse or sugarcane tops on the voluntary intake and growth performance were studied. Indigenous growing bulls (Bos indicus) of about 30 m age (252.9±36.8 kg B. Wt.) were randomly allocated to two treatments in a completely randomized design. The treatments were bagasse and urea-molasses-rice straw (UMS), bagasse mixed with 2% urea was compared with urea-molasses-rice straw (UMS). Bagasse fed animals had a lower (p<0.01) total DM (74 vs. 112 g/kg W^0.75/d) and roughage DM (47 vs. 82 g/kg W^0.75/d) intake than UMS fed animals, But % digestibility were significantly (p<0.01) higher (67 vs. 50) in the UMS than bagasse fed animals. However, no significant differences on daily liveweight gain of the bulls were found between two dietary treatments. In another experiment fifteen growing bulls (30 m old 200.6+43.3 kg B. Wt.) were divided into three equal groups and fed with (i) sugarcane tops ensiled with urea (STU) or (ii) with molasses (STM) and (iii) Urea molasses rice straw (UMS). STU or STM were compared with the UMS. STU or STM had a lower (p<0.01) roughage DM intake than UMS. However no difference in DM digestibility was found among STU STM or UMS dietarv groups The study reveals that sugarcane bagasse enriched with urea and sugarcane tons enriched with urea or molasses may be fed to bulls in the sugarcane growing for better intake and digestibility of nutrients