**3.1 Nutritional composition of by-products used as alternative feeding for ruminants**

The limited supply of nutritious feed is one of the main limiting factors to efficient animal production and reproduction. An intensive feeding system based on locally available by-product feeds may be an alternative promising feeding system to rear ruminants economically. However, the chemical composition of agro-industrial byproducts may vary largely depending on the feedstock type (**Table 1**).

Some nonconventional feeds such as coconut meal contain a crude protein ranging from 20 to 25% dry matter (DM) with relatively high quantities of cell wall constituents [neutral detergent fiber (NDF) more than 50% DM, and acid detergent fiber (ADF) of about 30% DM] [49]. Coconut meal obtained from mechanical extraction has generally high oil content (about 5 to 15% DM). This quantity of oil content makes it a valuable energy source for ruminants. An increase in the energy content of the


*Alternative Animal Feeding for Intensive Livestock Farming Systems and Their Impact… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.106061*

*z DM, dry matter; CP, crude protein; EE, ether extract; NFE, nitrogen-free extract; CF, crude fiber; ADF, acid detergent fiber; NDF, neutral detergent fiber. ND, not determined. The values are presented as a percentage of the dry mater content.*
