Many plants and trees like olive, soybean, canola, sunflower and coconut palm produce one type of oil. The fruits of the oil palm tree, however, yields two distinct oils - palm oil and palm kernel oil.[1]
Palm kernel cake are the leftovers after kernel oil is pressed out from the nut in the palm fruit. Palm kernel cake is commonly used as animal feed for dairy cattle because of its high protein content. If not, it is usually treated as biomass to fuel up boilers to generate electricity for use at palm oil mills and surrounding villages.
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There are two types of palm kernel cake, depending on the process to get it—either through mechanical or solvent process. In Malaysia, mechanical extraction by screw press is the most widely used. The solvent extraction process is generally not used because it is more expensive.[2]
Although palm kernel cake supplies both protein and energy, it is looked upon more as a source of protein. Palm kernel cake is a reasonably good economic feed for cattle, both for fattening and supplementary feeding. It has effectively reduced the cost of milk production in Malaysia because it is a substitute of costly imported feedstuffs like soybean meal and ground maize.[3]
Palm kernel cake, by itself, is a medium grade protein feed and with its high fibre content is often thought of being more suitable for feeding of ruminants.[4] Palm kernel cake is ranked a little higher than copra cake and cocoa pod husk[5] but lower than fish meal and groundnut cake, especially in its protein value.
Besides oil and protein, palm kernel cake also has high fibre content of 16 per cent and high phosphorus to calcium ratio. Also present are essential elements like magnesium, iron and zinc.[6] The typical feed ration formulated for the feeding of dairy cattle comprises 50 per cent palm kernel cake, molasses (5 per cent), grass/hay (42 per cent), limestone (1.5 per cent), mineral premix (1 per cent) and salt (0.5 per cent) and trace element of vitamin premix.[7]