Louisiana Cane Molasses


Sugarcane is a tall perennial grass, it is grown in tropical and semitropical climates. After the planting of cane stalk cuttings, the plant matures in 1-2 years. Two to four crops are harvested from the original plantings, unless the plants are impaired or destroyed by frost, disease, etc. Once harvested, sugarcane must be processed quickly before its sucrose deteriorates. To see how Sugarcane is processed, click here.

There has recently been renewed interest in feeding sugar and molasses to dairy cattle, because of the positive effect it has on forage digestion. Sugar and molasses supplements have been shown to increase the digestibility of diet dry and organic matter, as well as increase feed intake and microbial protein production in the rumen.

 

 

At LFI we only use 100% Louisiana 84 BRIX cane molasses, this is due to the amount of available sugar that is present in the product versus international molasses. Louisiana molasses have a very high concentration of sucrose (sugar), and a very low concentration of lignosulfamate, thus creating a thicker, darker and higher quality product.

 

Reducing sugars (glucose and fructose) take part in a browning reaction with amino acids in the absence of water. This reaction is known as "maillard browning."

 

Sucrose is very important, as it is highly fermentable in the rumen without additional energy needed to break down the molecule. However, if it is diluted with water, the sucrose will crystallize and turn into a glucose and galactose compound and not be as easily fermentable, therefore the lower quality products that have been diluted with water are not desirable for livestock feed.

 

 

 

Definitions

 

Brix
• Unit of measurement of the percent of sugar in an aqueous solution, usually measured 1 g sucrose/100g Solution as a %
Dextrose Equivalent
• Unit of measurement of the relative sweetness of reducing sugars in the syrup (Oligosaccharides) when compared to dextrose (that is, glucose) as a % on a dry weight basis
• DE indicates what percentage of syrup is glucose.
Invert Sugars
• Invert sugar is made from sucrose by splitting the sucrose into its component parts, glucose and fructose
• Made by adding 1g citric or ascorbic acid to 1kg sugar and then heat
• Sucrose, fructose and glucose support fermentation therefore, invert sugar solution may be fermented as rapidly as a sucrose solution