Suitability of oil seed cakes as livestock feeds: preliminary results

Suitability of oil seed cakes as livestock feeds: preliminary results Maria L. Varricchio1, Francesco Serrapica2, Massimo Fagnano1, Salvatore Faugno1, Maura Sannino1, Pinar Uzun1, Felicia Masucci1, Antonio Di Francia1 1Dipartimento di Agraria, University of Napoli “Federico II”, Italy 2Scuola di Scienze Agrarie, Forestali, Alimentari ed Ambientali, University of Basilicata, Italy Contact: antonio.difrancia@unina.it Increased pressure for land use and higher cereal grain prices have resulted in significantly higher feed costs for ruminant livestock. On the other hand, in the last few years, an increasing supply of new byproduct feeds, many derived from oil extraction became available. In this work, four of these byproducts, among the most diffused in Campania Region, were analyzed with the goal of evaluating if they would be suitable as livestock feeds. The following cakes were evaluated: Po, Pomegranate (Punica granatum); Th, Thistle (Cynara cardunculus); To, Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum); He, hemp (Cannabis sativa). For each cake, three samples of different origin were analyzed in duplicate according to the Weende (dry matter DM; crude protein CP; fat; ash), Van Soest (neutral and acid detergent fibre, NDF and ADF; acid detergent lignin; ADL) and CNCPS (soluble proteins, SP; non-protein nitrogen, NPN; neutral and acid detergent insoluble protein, NDIP and ADIP; starch) schemes. For all samples ash content (%DM) was below 10% (overall mean 5.1 ± 1.2 sd), ranging from 4.0 ± 0.1 of Po to 7.1 ± 0.1 of He. The fat content (%DM) was relatively high for almost all cakes (7.5 ± 0.6, 15.7 ± 4.6, and 10.2 ± 0.8, respectively for Th, To, and He), except Po (0.9 ± 0.1). The CP levels (%DM) were quite variable, being 14.7 ± 0.3, 20.0 ± 0.6, 37.1 ± 2.5 and 29.0 ± 2.8, respectively for Po, Th, To and He. In addition, SP (%CP) largely fluctuated, being respectively 2.8 ± 1.8, 54.9 ± 2.3, 31.0 ± 1.5 and 14.5 ± 1.6. By contrast, the levels of NPN %CP (overall mean 2.1 ± 0.7), and NDIP %CP (16.7 ± 2.7) were quite constant among and within the cakes. Limited variability was observed also for ADIP %CP (9.1 ± 1.4) that it is assumed the unavailable protein fraction. Starch content (%DM) was not detectable in To, and was generally low (5.6 ± 0.4, 5.0 ± 1.6, 5.6 ± 2.5, respectively for Po, Th and He). Regarding the fiber, all cakes, but Po, showed relatively limited contents of NDF %DM (71.9 ± 0.7, 46.4 ± 2.9, 48.8 ± 2.6, 51.1 ± 2.6, respectively for Po, Th, To and HeC), and ADF %DM (50.8 ± 0.6, 32.8 ± 2.1, 32.9 ± 1.8, 32.3 ± 1.5). High ADL (%DM) level were found for Po and To (11.1 ± 0.1 and 11.4 ± 0.4), whereas for the other cakes the values were 5.2 ± 2.0 (Th) and 6.3 ± 0.8 (He). Overall, Th, To, and He cakes showed interesting nutritional features in terms of protein and fiber content suggesting their potential utilization supplement for ruminants, whereas the use of Po may be not recommended as a feedstuff.