It was studied the effects of replacing groundcorn with coffee hulls on intake, apparent digestibility, and milk productionand composition of lactating dairy cows. Twelve Holstein-Zebu dairy cows wereblocked by days in milk and randomly assigned to three 4 x 4 Latin squares.The following levels of coffee hulls were included in the concentrate portionof the diet: 0.0, 8.75, 17.5, or 26.25% of dry mater (DM). Diets were formulatedto be isonitrogenous (14% CP) and contained a forage:concentrate ratio of 60:40on DM basis. Inclusion of coffee hulls in the diet had no significant effectson intakes of DM, organic matter, CP, and total carbohydrates (TC). However,intake of neutral detergent fiber (NDF) increased linearly when coffee hullsreplaced ground corn in the diet. Apparent total tract digestibilities of DM,CP, TC, NDF, and NFC all reduced linearly by increasing coffee hulls from 0.0to 26.25% in the diet. Coffee hulls increased excretion of N in the feces resultingin a negative nitrogenous balance. The incremental levels of coffee hulls didnot affect the urinary excretions of allantoin, uric acid, and purine derivativesas well as microbial protein synthesis. Milk yield and contents and yields offat, protein, and total solids also were not affected by replacing ground cornwith coffee hulls. It can be concluded that coffee hulls can be included upto 10.5% of the total dietary DM.
