Yuangklang et al., 2005. Asian-Aust. J. Anim. Sci., 18 (1) : 22-26

Four male crossbred beef steers about 2 years old were used in a 4×4 Latin square design to investigate the effect of  pelleted sugarcane tops on voluntary feed intake, rumen fermentation and digestibility of nutrients. Experimental treatments were;  Control (dried-chopped sugarcane tops (DCST)); PS1 (Pelleted sugarcane tops at 1 cm of diameter); PS2 (Pelleted sugarcane tops at 2  cm of diameter) and PS3 (Pelleted sugarcane tops at 3 cm of diameter). Roughage intake and total dry matter intake were 1.59, 1.62,  1.61, 1.63% BW and 2.09, 2.12, 2.11 and 2.13% BW in control, PS1, PS2 and PS3 treatments, respectively (p<0.05). Digestibility of  DM, OM and CP were similar in control and PS3 treatment but there was significant difference (p<0.05) between control and PS1, PS2  treatments. Digestibility of neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) were  52.89, 50.01, 50.05 and 50.56% and  41.91, 39.96, 39.91 and 39.69% in control, PS1, PS2 and PS3, respectively (p<0.05). Total volatile fatty acids concentrations in rumen  contents was 67.68, 65.93, 66.15 and 66.67 mM in control, PS1, PS2 and PS3, respectively (p<0.05). Even though, concentrations of  acetate and butyrate (%) were significant different (p<0.05) but concentration of propionate (%) was not affected by treatments (p>0.05).  Rumen pH, ammonia nitrogen and plasma urea nitrogen were significantly different (p<0.05) among treatments. From this experiment,  it was found that dried-chopped sugarcane tops increased digestibility of nutrients whereas pelleted sugarcane tops increased feed intake  in beef cattle. However, pelleted sugarcane tops at 3 cm of diameter did similar result in digestibility and rumen parameters with DCST.  Therefore, it could be concluded that pelleting sugarcane top is an alternative way to improve the quality of sugarcane tops for use as  ruminant roughage source.