Glossary > Feed Ingredients > SESAME CAKE

Sesame Cake: After extraction of the oil from the seeds, the resulting oilcake is a valuable high- protein feed. Combined with groundnut meal it provides a well-balanced protein supplement. Mixed with an equal amount of cottonseed meal, it has been included up to 15% in chick rations. Supplemented with blood meal and energy this feed has been quite successful.

The oilcake is palatable to all classes of livestock and has a mildly laxative effect. If it forms too large a part of the ruminant or swine ration, it will produce soft butter and pork. It is recommended that dairy animals be given no more than 3 kg of sesame cake per day, as larger amounts will give the milk a disagreeable taste. It should not be wetted when fed, as the meat will acquire an unpleasant taste.

Sesame meal is frequently used as the principal protein in both growing and fattening rations for swine, constituting up to 30% when 5% of the ration is a lysine-rich ingredient, such as meat meal. Excessive use of sesame meal may produce soft pork.

As sesame cake is rich in methionine and arginine, it has great potential as a poultry feed when mixed with lysine-rich materials. It has a high content of phytic acid and appears to bind calcium; hence the amount of calcium in diets containing sesame meal should be increased. The cake will become rancid if stored for any length of time.