Nutritional value of cane molasses in diets of grass silage and concentrates fed to sheep

Abstract

Five diets containing cane molasses at 0, 38.5, 75.9, 105.1 and 151.2 g kg −1 toluene dry matter (TDM) were prepared. The remainder of the diets comprised a mixture of grass silage, ground barley, soya bean meal and a mineral/vitamin supplement. Using three sheep per diet the digestibilities of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), gross energy and neutral detergent fibre (NDF) were measured. Energy losses in urine were measured whilst those from methane were predicted. The inclusion of molasses significantly ( P < 0.05) increased the digestibility of DM and OM in the diet containing the most molasses compared with that containing the least, although changes were small. There was no evidence that molasses inclusion reduced the digestibility of the NDF but dietary nitrogen utilization was substantially improved by increased molasses inclusion. The metabolizable energy (ME) content of the five diets ranged from 12.8 to 13.1 MJ kg −1 TDM, and the ME content of the molasses alone could not be shown to be significantly different from that of the basal diet (13.1 MJ kg −1 TDM).