The economical viability of animal production based on sugarcane co-products under the present prices of commodities

Animal production from sugarcane co-products is an alternative to diminish hunger and malnutrition in many sugar producing countries and to overcome low sugar prices. Due to the big differences of local market prices and cost considerations of feed, animal products and energy, average international market prices forecast by OECD-FAO have been used. The aim was to evaluate the comparative economical efficiency of milk, beef cattle and swine meat based on bagasse, blackstrap molasses and ‘B’ molasses respectively according to reported results and compared with their alternative uses. The net value of bagasse for producing milk has been estimated in the range of 20–30$/tonne, and depends heavily on the price of non sugarcane ration components and transportation costs, and is lower than its use for electricity generation at the sugar mill. Blackstrap molasses gives negative revenue when used for fattening cattle as compared with its export price or ethanol production. Swine fattening based on ‘B’ molasses shows a better revenue than converting it to sugar and blackstrap molasses for export. The obtained values do not take into account important factors affecting the economical revenue of each alternative, but may serve as a primary reference for the use of the sugarcane co-products for different purposes.