Nutritional Evaluation of Sugarcane Cultivars for Ruminants

The objective of this study was to evaluate the nutritional quality of twenty-nine cultivars of sugarcane. The design was completely randomized, with twenty-nine treatments (cultivars) and three replicates. The evaluations were performed at 540 days after planting during the phenological stage of maturation of sugar cane. Stalk length, number of nodes per plant, internodes length and stalk diameter were evaluated. The stalk samples were crushed, pre-dried and ground for achievement of chemical analysis, carbohydrate fractionation and in vitro digestibility of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM) and neutral detergent fiber (NDF). Data were analyzed by analysis of variance and posteriorly submitted to Scott-Knott test at 5% probability. Regarding biometric measurements the cultivars differed (P0.05) in the number of nodes as well as in the average internode length and stalk diameter. The content of DM, OM, protein, ether extract, NDF and acid detergent fiber showed differences between the cultivars evaluated (P