Ensiled Green Tea Waste as Partial Replacement for Soybean Meal and Alfalfa Hay in Lactating Cows

Makoto Kondo,Akemi Kaneko,Masashi Nakano,Hiro-Omi Yokota,Kazumi Kita,Hirobumi Agata

doi:10.5713/ajas.2004.960

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of protein supplementation of green tea waste (GTW) on the performance of lactating cows. Another aim was to increase resource utilization and to eliminate any environmental negative impact from the tea waste. GTW from a beverage company was ensiled at a low pH (<4.0) and high acetic acid and lactic acid concentration, and it contained high crude protein (CP, 34.8%), total extractable tannins (TET, 9.2%) and condensed tannin (CT, 1.7%). Two experiments were conducted to investigate the palatability and performance in lactating cows fed GTW. In the palatability trial, three lactating cows were allocated to three dietary treatments in a 3×3 Latin square design. The animals were offered a total mixed ration (TMR) including GTW at rates of 0, 2.5 and 5.0% on a dry matter (DM) basis. Total DM intake was not different among the treatments. In the performance trial, four lactating cows were used in a 2×2 Latin square design with a 3 week sampling period. GTW was incorporated into TMR at a rate of 5.0% on a DM and 10.0% on a CP basis. Thus GTW replaced alfalfa hay and soybean meal at a level of 25.0% on a DM. DM and CP intake were not affected by the inclusion of GTW, whereas TET and CT intake were significantly increased (p<0.001). Milk production, milk composition and the efficiency of milk production were not altered by the GTW inclusion. Although ruminal pH and VFA, and blood urea nitrogen were not changed, ruminal NH3-N and plasma total cholesterol were relatively low in the GTW group, but not significantly different. The excretion of urinary purine derivatives and estimated MN supply were also not significantly affected by GTW treatment. It is therefore concluded that GTW can be used as a protein source without any detrimental effects on the performance of lactating cows. (Asian-Aust. J. Anim. Sci. 2004. Vol 17, No. 7 : 960-966)

Highlights

Green tea is one of the major drinks in East Asia, some parts of the Middle East and North Africa (Graham, 1992).In Japan, consumption of green tea has been increasing remarkably in recent years
Green tea waste (GTW) may be considered as a valuable protein source consisting of 22-35% of crude protein (CP) (Yang et al, 2003; Kondo et al, 2004b)
dry matter (DM) and organic matter (OM) were determined by GTW was obtained from a local tea company, and drying the samples in an oven at 60°C for 48 h and by packed into polyethylene bags and tying with string after ashing at 550°C for 2 h, respectively

Summary

Introduction

Green tea is one of the major drinks in East Asia, some parts of the Middle East and North Africa (Graham, 1992).In Japan, consumption of green tea has been increasing remarkably in recent years. Green tea is one of the major drinks in East Asia, some parts of the Middle East and North Africa (Graham, 1992). Beverage companies manufacturing various tea drinks produce about 100 thousand tons of tea-leaf waste annually, most of which is burned, dumped into landfills or used as compost. Tea leaves contain much nitrogen compounds, amino acids, tannins, polyphenols such as catechin, epicatechin gallate, epigallocatechin gallate, and vitamins (Yamamoto et al., 1997), suggesting that tea-leaf waste may have potential as an animal feed. A method should be developed to efficiently utilize tea waste as a feed resource with no negative environmental impact. Green tea waste (GTW) may be considered as a valuable protein source consisting of 22-35% of crude protein (CP) (Yang et al, 2003; Kondo et al, 2004b)

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Results