Sugar Cane Feed

Hello Everyone,

I have joined the world of the on-line bloggers, although to many, my blogs won’t be that interesting, unless you like cattle and what they eat!

One of the first things I wanted to do was share this information with everyone.  It seems that a company has recently began to market a feed composed of sugar cane bagasse and some distillers grains.  The bagasse is the fibrous residue that is remaining following the syrup manufacutre.  We first became aware of this a little over a week ago, and have been keeping our eye on it.  Right now this product is available for sale @ $120/ton fob New Orleans.  We have analyzed a sample of this product and the analysis is listed below.  We (myself and Rhonda Vann at Brown Loam) are currently making plans to do a small type of study with this product to get a better handle on what we might exptect this feed to do.

Here are a couple of things you and your producers should be aware of:

Right now they only handle semi-loads, the option for supersacks may not be there, and they are in the process of “developing” the feed more, so the formulation may change

Sulfur is rather high (due to the DDGS in it, and the bagasse itself).  From a NRC perspective this feed fed alone with nothing else is at a level to be considered toxic.  Therefore you might want to ensure that this is fed in conjunction with something eles (pasture or other hay)

Phosphorus is high as well, and the Ca:P ratio is non-existant almost, therefore a good beef mineral with high level of Ca should be fed if you are going to use this product.

Here is the analysis, all values except dry matter are on a dry matter basis

• Dry Matter                      67.87%
• Crude Protein                 23.7%
• ADF                                  55.6%
• TDN                                  48.5%
• Sulfur                                 0.56%
• Calcium                             0.09%
• Phosphorus                      0.73%

My final thoughts are that while this product might make a good protein source, I would be wary of using it as the SOLE source of feed in your operation.  If you are using it to extend pasture or  hay (much like you would a supplement), it may work for that, just be aware that right now as its blended it is low in energy.  Also if you are mixing feed, this product may work great for added protein and some roughage.  Just be aware of the mineral issue.

Should any of you have any questions I will be happy to answer them.  601-403-8777 office, email drivera@ext.msstate.edu