SUGAR-CANE TREATMENTS WITH SUGAR-CANE MILL ASH

For evaluating the use of sugar cane ash as a solution in order to improve the nutritive value of sugar cane bagasse, solutions with 0, 15, 30 and 45% (weight/volume) sugar cane ash were prepared, which were left to react for 0, 6, and 12 hr on the ground sugar cane bagasse. The pH of the solutions was measured before and after the treatment and a more alkaline value was found for the most concentrated solutions, which decreased as the soaking time of the sugar cane bagasse increased. Dry matter (DM) content, ash silica (Si), neutral detergent fibre (NDF), hemicellulose (Hem), acid detergent fibre (ADF), cellulose (Cel), detergent acid lignine (DAL), as well as the in vitro digestibility of the organic matter (IVDOM), were determined. The DM and mineral content increased (P less-than-or-equal-to 0.05) on augmenting the ash concentration and the time of action on the forage. There were differences (P less-than-or-equal-to) in the content of the fibre fractions due to the treatment effect, although it was observed that these tended to decrease, a fact that was reflected on the improvement of the digestibility on increasing the ash concentration (P less-than-or-equal-to 0.05) up to 15% and the soaking time (P less-than-or-equal-to 0.5) until 6 hours.