S. C. RAY AND S. K.
TALAPATRA
133
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Acknowledgement is due to the Imperial Council
Agricultural Research for financing the Cattle
feeding Research Scheme, U.P., which offered
scope for this work. The author desires to express
his thanks to Mr C. Maya Das, I.A.S., Director of
Agriculture, United Provinces and Mr Sultan
Singh, Deputy Director of Agriculture, Bundel¬
khand Circle, Jhansi, for the facilities provided and
the keen interest taken in these investigations.
The author also acknowledges with thanks the
help received from Mr K. Kishan, Statistician,
Agricultural Department, United Provinces, in
the statistical analysis, Dr S. P. Srivastava and
Mr I. N. Sharma, Research Assistants, for the
analytical work and the compilation of the experi-
mental data and Messrs V. R. Singh and R. S.
Gupta, Farm Superintendents, for providing the
animals and making arrangements for the fodders.
REFERENCE
Das Gupta, N. C. (1943). Indian J. vet. Sci. 13.
BAGOMOLASSES AS CATTLE FEED
I. DIGESTIBILITY AND NUTRITIVE VALUE OF BAGOMOLASSES
By S. C. RAY and S. K. TALAPATRA, Animal Nutrition Section, Imperial Veterinary Research Institute,
Izatnagar
(Received for publication on 27 January 1945)
WITH the extensive development of sugar in-
dustry in this country, the economic disposal of a
large quantity of molasses in every crushing season
has become a problem for urgent consideration.
Of late, attempts have been made to open up
several avenues of economic utilization of mo-
lasses. One of these is its possible use as a
cattle-feed.
The Imperial Institute of Sugar Technology
had been, for some time past, manufacturing
a cattle feed containing a substantial quantity
of molasses. It was prepared by mixing dried
bagasse screenings and protein concentrate (made
of chunni and an oilcake) with boiled molasses.
The mixture was pressed into a cake and was
named as 'molasscuit'. Some feeding tests
with molasscuit were carried out at several centres.
Preliminary reports of these trials were some-
what contradictory as to the suitability of molass-
unit as a cattle feed. The manufacture of
molassed feed containing protein concentrate was
eventually dropped and the Imperial Institute
of Sugar Technology is now producing a new
feed very similar to the foregoing in general make-
up but containing no protein supplement. The
new feed has been named
'bagomolasses',
and is made up of one part bagasse screenings
mixed with two parts of molasses.
This paper embodies the results of experiments
carried out with a view (1) to record any character¬
istic behaviour shown by experimental animals
kept on a ration containing bagomolasses, (2) to
study the effect of incorporating bagomolasses on
consumption, digestion and utilization of a main-
tenance ration by bullocks, and (3) to evaluate
the digestibility coefficients and nutritive value
of bagomolasses.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS OF FEEDING BAGOMO-
------ TO CATTLE
At the outset, it was found necessary to con-
duct a number of preliminary feeding trials to
fix the maximum quantity of bagomolasses which
could be fed with ease and without inducing any
ill-effect in the animals. At first, the animals
showed a good appetite for the semi-dry bago-
molasses, which, however, gradually waned and
after about two to three weeks the animals simply
licked and nibbled the food intermittently. It
was eventually observed that bagomolasses could
be fed for a longer time, if it was soaked in water
before offering to the animals. Though this
procedure offered good promise, it was later
found that even after soaking the consumption
of bagomolasses was not high enough to warrant
its inclusion in a ration. The next step followed
was to feed bagomolasses mixed with a bulky
concentrate such as wheat bran. The mixture,
as before, was fed after soaking. This procedure
was quite successful and the animals could be
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