Sugarcane is a high-producing, low-cost forage under tropical environments.
Despite its high sucrose content, the ber fraction is of low
quality and may limit the performance of dairy animals. We completely
replaced corn silage NDF with nely ground sugarcane NDF in 35factorialized
with two protein levels (12 or 16heifers were individually fed
for a 8-week comparison period following a 3-week standardization period
in a covariate adjusted, randomized block design. Heifer age at the
beginning of the comparison period was 413 96 days (mean SD).
Statistical analysis was performed using the repeated measures approach
of the MIXED procedure of SAS. Main eect of forage source is shown
as there was no signicant interaction or protein level eect (P>.10).