Performance of lactating cows fed with cake of babassu: ingestive behavior, intake, digestibility, production and quality of milk

This study aimed to evaluate the intake, digestibility of dry matter and NDF, ingestive behavior, production and composition of milk and the economic evaluation of dairy cows fed diets containing cake of babassu (CB) in confinement regime. We used nine crossbred Holstein Gir cows in three 3 x 3 Latin squares. The treatments consisted of three diets, a standard based on corn and soybean meal (CB0), another with 25% (CB25) and the last one with 50% (CB50) replacing corn. There was no effect of diets on the intake of DM (DMI) and other nutrients. The replacement of 50% of the maize by CB was reduced milk production at 1.10 kg/day, but did not affect the DMI and other nutrients, in the same way the digestibility of DM was not affected, already the digestibility of NDF was influenced, where diets with CB presented lower values. The rate of ingestion in minutes/kg of DM consumed was higher for cows fed with diets CB, which indicates a low acceptability of this food for dairy cattle. The cake of babassu can replace corn at up to 25% in diets for lactating cows, without depreciating the performance with daily production of 13 kg of milk.