Nutritive value of brewers’ grain and maize silage for fattening rabbits

Abstract

Specific knowledge of the nutritive value of raw materials is fundamental to formulate balanced diets for rabbits and allows greater use of by-products and non-conventional feedstuffs. This paper examines the feeding value of sun-dried brewers' grain and maize silage (whole plant) for fattening rabbits. Twentyfour individually caged 8-wk-old rabbits were used to determine the digestibility. Both wet products were sun-dried and ground before being incorporated into a basal diet. The inclusion level at the expense of all basal ingredients amounted to 30%. Basal diet and both experimental diets were fed ad libitum to 8 rabbits during the 4-d balance trial. The determined digestibility of protein, fat, crude fibre and neutral detergent fibre digestibility amounted to 76.2 and 77.2%; 86.5 and 99.1%; 8.1 and 8.3% and 28.0 and 13.5%, respectively, for brewers' grain and maize silage. The digestible energy content amounted to 11.66 MJ/kg dry matter (DM) (brewers' grain) and 11.10 MJ/kg DM (maize silage). Both by-products have potential as alternative feedstuff in rabbit diets. However, further experiments are necessary to determine the effect of ensilaging the whole maize plant, as a significantly lower (P<0.001) feed intake was observed.

Effect of simplified feeding based only on wheat bran and brewer’s grain on rabbit performance and economic efficiency

“…This value was similar to that found by Guermah et al (2016) which was 207 g/kg, but 15 to 20% lower than those reported by Salifou (1997) andthe EGRAN tables (Martens et al, 2002). The brewer's grain used (Table 1) had appreciable NDF fibre contents (602 g/ kg) close to the value (624 g/kg) obtained by Maertens and Salifou (1997) and much higher (528 g/kg) than those reported by the EGRAN (Maertens et al, 2002) and Guermah et al (2016;490 g/kg). The ADF content was 213 g/ kg, slightly higher (4 to 10%) than the values found by the same authors mentioned above.…”

“…Brewer's grains, an agro-industrial by-product of beer production, are locally available and can be considered a good source of protein (24%) and fibre (neutral detergent fibre [NDF]: 62.4%, acid detergent fibre [ADF]: 19.7%). Their usefulness in the feed of fattening rabbits has been proven (Maertens and Salifou, 1997;Berchiche et al, 1999;Lounaouci-Ouyed et al, 2008;Guermah et al, 2016).…”

Effects of incorporating agro-industrial by-products into diet of New Zealand rabbits: Case of rebus of date and apricot kernel meal

“…These rabbits were imported with a view to improving the local breed and ensuring both a qualitative and quantitative diversification of the meat. In stock farming, spending on food accounts for between 60% and 70% of production costs [ 1 ] and this is also true for rabbits (60%) [ 2 ]. The use of unconventional foodstuffs is one of the alternatives that can be adopted to reduce production costs [ 3 - 5 ].…”

Dried brewers grains in growing rabbits: nutritional value and effects on performance

“…The characteristics of the digestive physiology of rabbits allow the use of considerable amounts of fibrous feedstuffs in diets, enabling us to introduce some agro-industrial by-products (De Blas et al, 2015;Guermah et al, 2016). This practice can lower feed costs by replacing commonly-used energy or protein sources such as corn and soybean meal, adding value to by-product feedstuffs and reducing the environmental impact caused by their improper disposal.…”