The Use of Coffee Pulp as a Potential Alternative Supplement in Ruminant Diets

The study was conducted to evaluate the use of dried industrial coffee pulp in diets as supplement for ruminants. Two diets were formulated: A and B with 30% coffee pulp content each and different concentrations of carbohydrates (milled corn, corn bran, molasses, alfalfa hay) and fibrous residues (corn stubble, sugar cane mash) as ingredients. The dried coffee pulp was subjected to proximate analyses, whilst the two diets were subjected to nutritional and microbiological analyses. The results of the proximate analyses showed that the dried coffee pulp has 18% crude protein (CP), 33.6% crude fibre (CF) and total digestible nutrients (TDN) content of 63.8%. Diets A and B had the similar mean values for CP, CF and TDN (17%, 4.3% and 75.6%, respectively). The microbiological results showed that the two diets had the same minimal values for Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp. and coliform bacteria, which were all within the normal allowed values. The results indicate that dry coffee pulp in diets could be supplemented to ruminants for supporting milk and meat production without any adverse effect on their health.