Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Animal Production Dept., Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt.
2
Animal Production Res. Institute, Agriculture. Res. Center, Ministry of Agric., Dokki, Giza, Egypt.
3
Agriculture. Res. Center, Ministry of Agric., Dokki, Giza, Egypt.
4
Central Laboratory of Date Palm Research, Agriculture Res. Center, Ministry of Agric., Dokki, Giza, Egypt.
Abstract
To evaluate the chemical composition, nutritive value and economic efficiency of ethanol production from discarded dates palm (DDP). Tested DDP was collected from New Valley region farms after harvesting, sundried and crashed. The 1stpart of crashed unfermented discarded date palm (UFDDP) was used as it is to evaluate its nutritive value; while the 2nd part was used to produce ethanol and the by-product of ethanol production, fermented discarded date palm (FDDP), was evaluated. Three digestibility trials were carried out using nine rams. Clover hay (CH) was used as a basal ration to investigate digestion coefficients and nutritive values of DDP. Ethanol was produced from four different parts of DDP by-product using yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae).
Results showed that UFDDP had the highest DM, OM, EE, NFE and GE contents than those of FDDP, while CP, CF and ash contents had opposite trend. Unfermented discarded date palm (UFDDP) had the highest digestion coefficients (P<0.05) of OM, EE and NFE, while; FDDP with wheat bran had the highest digestion coefficients of CP and CF. The highest TDN, GE and DE were found for UFDDP, while FDDP recorded the lowest values.
Under experimental fermentation processing conditions, one ton of DDP with wheat bran, DDP flesh, DDP only, Date pits produced on average 224, 283.9, 261, 96.87 liters ethanol/ton, with a total price 4955, 6280, 5773 and 2143 L.E., respectively.
Fifteen lactating buffaloes with average weight of (550-650 kg) and at their (2nd and 3rd) lactating season, were randomly divided into five groups to evaluate the effect of incorporating DDP instead of corn grains in concentrated feed mixture on milk production performance. Five tested rations were offered in three successive experimental periods in complete switch back design. All experimental rations were formulated to contain 26.5% maize silage, 21.0% Egyptian clover, 10.0% rice straw in combination with 42.5% concentrate feed mixture (CFM) contained either 35% yellow corn grains (R1) or DDP was used instead of yellow corn grains by 50% (R2) or 100% (R3) or FDDP was used instead of yellow corn grains by 50% (R4) or 100% (R5). Results indicated that animals fed R1, R2 or R3 showed the best feed efficiency as DM, TDN and DCP, compared with those fed R4 or R5. Meantime, economic efficiency recorded insignificant differences with substituting corn grain by DDP in the 2nd and 3rd rations. On contrast replacement corn grains by FDDP led to decrease the economic efficiency by about 25.98 and 30.39% for the 4th and 5th rations, respectively. Moreover, substituting corn grains by 50 or 100% DDP during formulation of CFM led to reduce the price of one ton concentrate by about 8.0 and 16%, respectively.
Results of this study indicated that discarded dates can be incorporated into the rations of ruminant animals replacing all or a part of maize grains imported reverberating both beneficial the national economy to provide an outlet for date sector. Along with it can be used successfully for ethanol production and using the residues after fermentation for feeding animals.
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