Coconut meal (Cocos nucifera)

Common name: Copra

Local names: Hindi: Nariyal Marathi: Naral Malayalam: Kopparai Tamil: Thenghai

Coconut meal or copra is the meal remaining after extraction of oil from the dried endosperm of the coconut. Coconut meal is an important  protein supplement for  livestock in many tropical countries.

Nutritive value

It contains about 70-75% TDN, 25-30% crude protein and approximately 10% crude fibre. The oil content of coconut meal varies from 2.5-6.5%. Meals of higher oil content are being very useful in the preparation of high energy diets. However, they suffer the disadvantage of being susceptible to rancidity on storage. The protein is low in lysine and histidine and this together with the generally high fiber content limits the usage of the meal for simple stomached animals. Neither protein quality nor fibre content is limiting for ruminant animals.

Coconut meal provides an acceptable and very useful protein supplement. In diets for dairy cows it is claimed to increase milk fat content. The milk fats produced on diets containing considerable amounts of coconut meal are firm and excellent for butter making.