Chemical Evaluation of Co-products of Cocoa and Kola as Livestock Feeding Stuffs

Many by – products that are considered as wastes in Nigeria have great potentials as animal feed ingredients if properly handled, processed and incorporated into rations. Some of such wastes are cocoa bean shell (CBS), cocoa pod husk (CPH), kola testa (KOT) and kola pod husk (KPH). Nigeria is one of the world largest producers of cocoa and kola and hence the by-products of these crops are abundantly wasted and constitute nuisance at farmstead and/or processing factory sites. Evaluating the chemical values of these by-products will offer possibility of effectively utilizing them as feed ingredients. The present study investigated the proximate contents, fibre fractions, mineral and amino acid profiles and energy values of CBS, CPH, KOT and KPH in order to assess their various potentials as feed resources. The components that were analysed included the crude protein, ash, crude fat, crude fibre, acid detergent fibre, neutral detergent fibre, caffeine, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, sodium, iron, zinc, copper, manganese, molybdenum, sulphur, chloride ion, cobalt, taurine, proline, hydroxyproline, aspartic acid, threonine, serine, glutamic acid, lanthionine, glycine, alanine, cysteine, valine, methionine, isoleucine, leucine, tyrosine, phenylalanine, lysine, hydrolysine, ornithine, histidine, arginine, tryptophan and energy. The results of the chemical determinations revealed that CBS, CPH, KOT and KPH have a fairly good chemical composition suitable for use as animal feed ingredients. The fibre contents may however dictate the level of the co-products that can be incorporated in the rations, particularly for the non-ruminants.