Tropical Animal Health and Production (2021) 53:527

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-021-02962-2

SHORT COMMUNICATIONS

Inclusion of babassu bran produced in milk production in Amazonia

Jozivaldo Prudêncio Gomes de Morais1 · Mariana Campana1 · Tiago Antônio Del Valle2 ·
Thainá Garcia Moreira1 · Eduardo Darvin Ramos da Silva3 · Romário Fogaça do Prado3 ·
Renata Evangelista de Oliveira1

Received: 29 April 2021 / Accepted: 8 October 2021

© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2021

Abstract
One important species for extraction and subsistence of traditional populations in Brazil is the babassu palm (Attalea spe-
ciosa Mart ex Spreng). As a by-product of the babassu oil socio-productive chain in Amazonia region, the residual bran
needs to be better used and could represent an additional source of income for coconut breakers, and a local alternative in
the composition of diets for dairy cows. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of a diet containing babassu
bran on the intake and digestibility of cows, their production and milk composition, in the Amazon region. The experimental
trial was arranged in a Cross over design, composed of fourteen animals, two treatments and two periods of 28 days (21 days
for adaptation to diets and 7 days for data collection). Treatments were concentrate without babassu bran (CNV) and with
babassu bran (BBS). Milk composition did not differ significantly between treatments. The inclusion of 35.6% BBS in feed
ration supported an average daily milk production of 18.2 kg/day, while CNV produced 19.8 kg/day. There was lower feed
consumption for BBC, but equal to that of CNV when comparing liters of milk produced per kg of ingested concentrate
(1:3.09 CNV × 1:3.07 BBS), which demonstrates that treatments did not differ in productive efficiency. Our results bring the
possibility of a better use of babassu bran. This alternative could improve the quality of life of rural populations, while being
linked to the conservation of native ecosystems and the sustainable use of socio-biodiversity products.

Keywords Attalea speciosa Mart ex Spreng. · Alternative feed · Family farming · Socio-productive arrangements · Dairy
cows

Introduction
* Jozivaldo Prudêncio Gomes de Morais
jozivaldo@ufscar.br
Current discussion regarding agriculture highlights the
Mariana Campana
macampana1@yahoo.com.br development of agri-food systems based on new values and
social relationships (Borsatto and Souza-Esquerdo 2019)
Tiago Antônio Del Valle
tiagodelvalle@unipampa.edu.br and concerns about deforestation and its consequences
(Swedan 2020). Production alternatives that guarantee better
Thainá Garcia Moreira
thaimoreira@hotmail.com conservation, combined with the development and mainte-
nance of production chains that value and strengthen family
Eduardo Darvin Ramos da Silva
eduardodarvin@gmail.com agriculture — and agroextractivism — are needed (Porro
2019), as well as regenerative production models suited
Romário Fogaça do Prado
romario.prado@icv.org.br to the circular economy (Geissdoerfer et al. 2017) — with
closed loop material flows that reduce waste disposal and
Renata Evangelista de Oliveira
reolivei@ufscar.br focus on reuse, transformation, and recycling.
Among the products of Brazilian socio-biodiversity are
1
Center for Agrarian Sciences, UFSCar/CCA – those derived from extractive and agroextractive manage-
Biotechnology, Animal and Plant Production Department, ment of the babassu palm, Attalea speciosa Mart ex Spreng
Federal University of São Carlos, Araras, SP, Brazil
(Carvalhaes and Oliveira 2017). In the Amazonian region,
2
Federal University of Santa Maria, Santa Maria, RS, Brazil socio-productive arrangements produce babassu oil (Arruda
3
Life Center Institute, ICV, MT, Alta Floresta, Brazil

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527 Page 2 of 5 Tropical Animal Health and Production (2021) 53:527

et al. 2014; Botelho et al. 2019), a process that results in Table 1  Chemical composition and in vitro digestibility of babassu
the production of bran that could be added to other produc- bran
tive systems such as milk production. Babassu by-products, Composition %
including bran, have a long history of use in animal feed
Dry mater 87.58
in Brazil (Cavalcante et al. 2014; Sá et al. 2015), although
Crude protein 2.20
nutritional value remains little known.
Ether extract 2.07
Castro et al. (2020) recommended babassu bran usage up
Neutral detergent fiber (NDF) 42.49
to 35% of sheep diet. However, sheep production in Amazon
Acid detergent fiber (ADF) 18.93
is immature and farms classically produce beef and dairy
Ash 1.58
cattle. To the best of our knowledge, there is no study evalu-
In vitro digestibility 69.01
ating babassu bran effects on dairy cows’ performance.
Therefore, we hypothesized that babassu bran could be
used instead of ground corn in grazing dairy cows with
no effects on feed intake, nutrients digestibility, and per- Table 2  Composition of experimental diets and silage (g/kg, except
formance. The objective of this study was to evaluate the when specified)
effects of babassu bran addition in dietary addition in dairy Composition Concentrates Corn silage
cows produced in the Amazon region on nutrients intake and CNV BBS
digestibility, milk yield and composition.
Ground corn 645 227 -
Soybean meal 320 383 -
Babassu bran 0 356 -
Material and methods Minerals 34.8 34.4 -
Corn silage - - 1000
Experimental site Chemical composition
Dry matter, g/kg in fresh material 898 893 350
The field experiment was coordinated by UFSCar team and
Organic matter 937 933 951
conducted on a commercial dairy farm in the county of Alta Crude protein 198 196 90.0
Floresta (Mato Grosso State, Brazil). The trial was carried Neutral detergent fiber (NDF) 176 265 613
out during the winter of 2018. All laboratorial analyses were Acid detergent fiber (ADF) 24.1 97.3 281
performed at GETAP, Animal Nutrition Laboratory of the Ether extract 30.3 29.9 55.7
Agricultural Sciences Center of the Federal University of Indigestible NDF 19.6 66.3 153
São Carlos, UFSCar, São Paulo State, Brazil.
Concentrates: CNV: without babassu bran; and BBS: diet containing
356 g/kg MS of babassu bran
Animals, treatments and experimental diets

The experimental trial was arranged in a Cross over design,
composed of fourteen animals, two treatments and two peri-
ods of 28 days (21 days for adaptation to diets and 7 days
for data collection). The treatments were concentrate with-
out babassu bran (CNV) and with babassu bran (BBS). The
diet with babassu was calculated using babassu bran analy-
ses from previous trials made by our team. These previous
results were (%): dry matter = 84.2; ash = 1.3; crude pro-
tein = 1.5; ether extract = 0.3; neutral detergent fiber = 6.8;
acid detergent fiber = 3.8, lignin = 1.5 and in vitro digest-
ibility = 76.2. Animals were reared at outdoor system, con-
centrated was offered individually during milking time and
silage was offered ad libitum for each group. The formula-
tions were done to meet the nutritional requirements of lac-
tating cows according to recommendations of the National
Research Council (NRC 2001). Ingredients and diets were
chemical composition analyzed (Tables 1 and 2). The
amount of concentrate offered was related with individual
milking production cow considering the ratio 1:3 (concen-
trate: milk production — liters).
Intake and nutrient digestibility
Urine samples were collected immediately after milking by
stimulated urination. Samples were acidified and store
according to Valadares et al. (1999). Urine creatinine con-
centration was evaluated using commercial kit (Bioclin,
Belo Horizonte, Brazil) and readings were performed in a
spectrophotometer. Allantoin was analyzed following Fuji-
hara and Yamaguchi (1978) procedures. Allantoin and cre-
atinine were considered to( calculate ) PDC index (Dórea
et al. 2017): PDCindex = Creatinine
Allantoin
× BW 0.75; where BW
is body weight (kg). Dry matter intake from each animal was
estimated using the following equation (Dórea et al. 2017):
DMI (kg/d) = 11.58 + 0.032 × PDC index.

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The amount of concentrates offered was weighted daily.
Silage intake was obtained by the difference of estimated
DMI and concentrate intake. Samples of concentrates and
silage were sampled during each day of sampling periods
and freeze for analysis. Samples were dried at 60 °C for
72 h, and ground in a knife mill to pass through a 1-mm
sieve (SL-31, Solab Científica, Piracicaba, Brazil). It was
analyzed for dry matter — DM (method 930.15, p.69), ash
(method 942.05, p. 70), ether extract — EE (method 920.39,
p. 79), crude protein — CP (6,25 × N — method 988.05, p.
70), and acid detergent fiber — ADF (method 973.18, p.
82) as described at AOAC International (1990). The neutral
detergent fiber (NDF) was analyzed without alpha-amyl-
ase, and sodium sulfite (Van Soest et al. 1991). Nutrients
intake (NI) were obtained using the following equation: NI
(kg/d) = concentrate intake × nutrient content in concentrate
(kg/kg) + silage intake × nutrient content in silage (kg/kg).
Feces were sampled from the final portion of the rectum
from each experimental period. Indigestible NDF of concen-
trates, silage, and feces samples was analyzed according to
Casali et al. (2008). Fecal output was obtained considering
100% of fecal marker (iNDF) recovery. Feces samples were
also analyzed for ash, CP, and NDF to access organic matter,
CP and NDF digestibility.
Milking
Results and discussion
The experimental diets were originally planned to be iso-
nutritional with the similar biochemical values calculated
based on the previous analysis of a babassu bran sample
in an animal nutrition laboratory at UFSCar. However,
the babassu bran used in this trial was much more fibrous
(Table 1). This by-product is heterogeneous and difficult to
standardize, due to the artisanal aspect of its production.
In this trial, the babassu were more fibrous, and because of
this, the cows intake of concentrate (P ≤ 0.099) and appar-
ent digestibility of nutrients were lower for animals fed BBS
compared to those fed CNV (Table 3). Although ruminal
microorganisms can digest cellulose and other fibrous car-
bohydrates, factors related to the structure and composition
of the plant, such as the physical-compound interactions
between the hemicellulose matrix and lignin, and animal-
related aspects can limit food digestion in the rumen (Mar-
tins et al. 2006).
More fibrous feeds reduce animals feed intake, which
directly implies decreased milk production (Mertens 1994;
Allen 2000). In this case, cows fed with BBS produced
18.2 kg of milk per day while those fed with CNV produced
19.8 kg per day (P = 0.026; Table 3). While the animals fed
BBS produced less, on the other hand, eat less concentrate.
This demonstrates that there was no difference in productive

Milking was performed by machines twice a day (at 6 am

and 6 pm) and it weighed using Delaval type milk meters, Table 3  Nutrients intake and total-tract apparent digestibility of dairy
cows fed with conventional diet and containing babassu brans
by each cow to make adjustments for concentrate supply.
During data record, fresh samples were collected and ana- Item Treatments1 MSE2 P3
lyzed for crude protein, fat and lactose, using milk analyzer CNV BBS
(Master mini, AKSO, São Leopoldo, Brazil).
Intake, kg/day
Dry matter 21.6 20.5 0.48 0.270
Statistical analysis Silage 15.2 14.6 0.51 0.563
Concentrate 6.41 5.92 0.323 0.099
Data were analyzed using PROC MIXED of SAS (version Organic Matter 20.4 19.4 0.45 0.263
9.4, SAS Inst. Inc., Cary, NC, USA), according to the fol- Neutral detergent fiber (NDF) 10.4 10.5 0.29 0.898
lowing model: Acid detergent fiber (ADF) 4.42 4.68 0.138 0.365
Crude protein 2.64 2.47 0.061 0.085
Yijk = 𝜇 + Ti + pj + ak + eijk Ether Extract 1.13 1.08 0.032 0.422
( ) Indigestible NDF 2.45 2.62 0.074 0.247
With pj ≈ N 0, 𝜎p2 , ak ≈ N 0, 𝜎a2 e eijk ≈ N 0, 𝜎e2 ,
( ) ( )
Total apparent digestibility, g/kg
where: Yijk is the observed value of the dependent variable; Dry matter 663 573 11.0 < 0.001
µ is the general mean; Ti is the fixed effect of treatment (i = 1 Organic matter 686 593 10.3 < 0.001
and 2); pj is the random effect of the experimental period Crude protein 667 572 18.3 0.011
(j = 1 and 2); ak is the random effect of the animal (k = 1 to NDF 605 518 10.7 < 0.001
14); eijk is the experimental error; N indicates Gaussian dis- 1
Treatments: CNV: without babassu bran; and BBS: diet containing
tribution; and 𝜎p2, 𝜎a2 and 𝜎e2 are the variances associated with 356 g/kg MS of babassu bran
the random effects of period, animal and residue, respec- 2
Mean standard error
tively. A significance level of 5% was used for all analyses. 3
Probability for the treatment effect

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Table 4  Productive performance of dairy cows fed with conventional Our results demonstrate that cows fed diet with babassu bran
diet and containing babassu bran had lower milk production than those fed conventional feed.
Item Treatments1 MSE2 P3 Concentrate intake and total digestibility of the diet with
babassu bran were also lower, potentially due to higher
CNV BBS
fiber content. However, productive efficiency did not differ
Yield, kg/dia between conventional and diet with babassu, with no sig-
Milk production 19.8 18.2 0.94 0.026 nificant difference in milk composition between treatments.
ECM4 21.5 18.3 0.75 0.012 The findings of the present study bring the possibility of a
Lactose 0.972 0.902 0.0459 0.255 better use of babassu bran, a waste by-product of the babassu
Fat 0.777 0.622 0.0344 0.042 oil production process in the studied agroextractive com-
Protein 0.650 0.607 0.0303 0.292 munities. This alternative has the potential to improve the
Milk composition, g/kg quality of life of rural populations, while being linked to the
Lactose 49.5 50.3 1.23 0.701 conservation of native ecosystems and the sustainable use
Fat 41.5 40.0 3.24 0.687 of socio-biodiversity products.
Protein 33.2 34.0 0.87 0.573
Indexes Acknowledgements We are thankful to ICV technicians and to the
Produtive efficiency Group for Agricultural Studies and Works (GETAP/UFSCar) members,
who helped with the field data collection and laboratory analysis. We
MP/DMI5 0.919 0.895 0.0454 0.671 are also grateful to the farmers for allowing us to develop part of the
MCE/DMI6 1.004 0.957 0.0467 0.579 field experiment in their properties.
Urine evaluations, mM
Allantoin 24.5 17.5 3.92 0.026 Author contribution JPGM, TADV and MC designed the experiment;
Creatinine 7.71 6.35 1.301 0.030 RFP have done the field data collection; TGM and MC have done the
laboratory analysis and data tabulation; JPGM, TADV, EDRS and REO
PDC ­index7 313 279 14.9 0.270 have done the data interpretation; JPGM and REO prepared and edited
1 the manuscript.
Treatments: CNV: without babassu bran; and BBS: diet containing
356 g/kg MS of babassu bran
2 Funding The funding support for this study was provided by ICV –
Mean standard error
Instituto Centro de Vida (Life Center Institute), Brazil.
3
Probability for the treatment effect
4
Energy corrected milk, calculated according to the following equa- Data availability Not applicable.
tion (Sig et al., 2011): ECM (kg/d) = (0.327 × MP) + (12.86 × F) + (7.
65 × P), where MP, F and P are the daily productions of milk, fat and Code availability Not applicable.
protein, respectively
5
Ratio between milk yield and dry matter intake
6
Declarations
Ratio between energy corrected milk yield and dry matter intake
7
Allantoin and creatinine excretion index Ethics approval and consent to participate This study has been offi-
cially approved by the Ethics Committee on the use of animals –
CEUA/UFSCar—Brazil (Project number 6347120219).
efficiency between treatments (P > 0.671). By-products are
notorious for being difficult to standardize the production. Consent for publication Not applicable.
This can lead to the generation of a heterogenous product,
with batches having different biochemical characteristics, Conflict of interest The authors declare no competing interests.
which would also lead to heterogeneity in feed production
and, consequently, in milk production and composition (Tak-
iya et al. 2019). The results for the present study, however,
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