PROCESSING PATHWAYS AND WHERE EACH RESIDUE ORIGINATES

Cassava residues entering dairy feed systems are generated at distinct steps of root processing. Industrial starch extraction typically involves washing and peeling (yielding peels/rinds), size reduction/rasping, and starch separation (yielding a solid fibrous fraction, pulp/pomace/press cake, plus effluents), followed by subsequent dewatering/drying or downstream valorization [26–28]. A recent overview of cassava biorefineries highlights that cassava industry residues include fibrous by-products such as bagasse (scraped pulp and peel) and large volumes of liquid streams, reflecting how processing configurations shape the residue portfolio and contamination risks (e.g., soil/ash, dilution by wash water) [29]. This matters for dairy feeding because the same pulp label can reflect different separation efficiencies: higher starch recovery generally produces a more fibrous pulp with lower residual starch, whereas lower recovery yields pulp with higher residual starch and greater fermentability. As a practical benchmark, dried cassava pulp has been reported to contain approximately 42.8–64.0% starch on a DM basis, with an average near 53.4% DM; thus, pulp from more efficient industrial recovery may fall toward the low-40% range, whereas pulp from less efficient recovery may remain in the high-50% to about 60% DM range [30, 31]. Recent ruminant-focused syntheses similarly argue that feeding strategies must be tailored to how cassava is processed in specific regions and supply chains [4].