Abstract—The purpose of this experiment was to determine the effects of sepiolite usage on pellet quality characteristics for dairy cattle concentrate feed under industrial conditions. Experiment consisted of one control and one treatment group with 10 batches each and 1 ton per batch. Pellets were produced in a commercial feed factory in Turkey. Basal feed (control group) produced contained 17.95% crude protein, 8.81% crude fibre and 4.61% ether extract. For the treatment group, 1% sepiolite (Exal T, Tolsa Turkey Company-Polatlı, Türkiye) was added as top dressed in the mixer. Pelleting disc having 4 mm hole diameter was used. Moisture losses during pellet production were reduced, pellet durability indexes were enhanced, fine particles were reduced by using 1% sepiolite. Water activity values of pellet feeds were not affected by sepiolite addition. The results indicated that 1% sepiolite supplementation as top dressed may be used during pellet manufacturing of dairy cattle concentrates to improve their pellet quality characteristics such as pellet durability index and water activity.
 

Index Terms—dairy cattle concentrate, pellet durability, sepiolite, water activity

Cite: Sakine Yalçın, Ender Burçak, İlyas Onbaşılar, Muhammad Shazaib Ramay, and Mahlagha Pirpanahi, "Effects of Sepiolite Supplementation to Dairy Concentrate on Pellet Quality Characteristics," Journal of Advanced Agricultural Technologies, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 57-60, March 2019. Doi: 10.18178/joaat.6.1.57-60