Osorio, 1990. Livest. Res. Rural Dev., 2 (2): 77-91

The potential use of sugar-cane bagasse in animal feeding was evaluated in commercial Zebu steers. A basal diet of steam-treated bagasse was supplemented with two levels (2% or 3% of animal live weight) of foliage of the legume tree Gliricidia sepium and four levels (ad libitum, 1, 1.5 or 2 kg/day) of a urea/molasses mixture containing 10% urea. Liveweight gains were in the range 0.55 to 0.75 kg/d; there were no statistical differences in animal live weight change between the levels of Gliricidia (P=0.40) nor between the quantities of urea/molasses mixture used (P=0.76). In a second experiment, comparisons were made between animals fed on bagasse treated in two different ways (steam or steam-ammonia), supplemen-ted with two levels of Gliricidia (1% or 1.5% of live weight) and three levels of urea (12, 14 or 16%) in a urea/molasses mixture fed ad libitum; a higher rate of live weight change (P=0.00) was obtained for the animals fed on steam-treated bagasse (0.635, 0.624 and 0.564 kg/day for 12, 14 and 16% urea in urea/molasses, respectively) than those fed on steam-ammonia-treated bagasse (0.297 kg/day); there were no differences due to level of Gliricidia (P=0.87) and the percentage of urea in the molasses (P=0.40). In a third experiment, rumen degradability tests (nylon bag tech-nique) were carried out on raw bagasse, steam-ammonia, and steam-treated bagasse. There were significant differences (P=0.003) between the treatments. Mean values for dry matter degradability at 24 hours in the rumen of cattle were 14, 20 and 31% for untreated, steam-ammonia and steamed bagasse respectively; the corresponding value for cotton wool was 35%. It was concluded that steam-treated bagasse can be used successfully in the fattening of cattle.