Palm kernel cake (PKC) is the by-product or solid residue resulting from the mechanical screw pressing of palm kernels which contains some residual oil. In Malaysia alone, ~2.2 million tonnes of PKC were produced in 2007 which increased to about 2.4 million tonnes in 2009 (MPOB 2012) due to expansion of the palm oil industry. The global generation capacity of PKC in 2011 was estimated at 3.5 mil­lion tonnes (MPOB 2012).

PKC is being used currently as fattening steers in feedlots (Akpan et al. 2005). Depending on the amount of PKS in the PKC, crude protein content of PKC may range from 160.0 to 180 g/kg DM. PKC again contains high amount of minerals including copper an. zinc which have no significant disadvantage (such as mortality in ruminants fed with PKC) as reported by Hair-Bejo et al. (1995). PKC contains about 78% hemicellulose in the form of mannan and 12% cellulose (Sundu and Dingle 2003).

PKC has dry matter content of 883 g/kg DM, 126-131 g/kg DM extractives,

39.4 g/kg DM ash content,131 g/kg DM crude fibre, 460.5 g/kg DM ADF and 682 g/kg DM NDF (Ramachandran et al. 2007; Akpan et al. 2005). PKC has been analysed by Ogbuagu (2008) to contain high values of carotenes or vitamin A (0.16 mg/100 g), thiamine (0.07 mg/100 g), riboflavin (0.07 mg/100 g), nitrates (3.05 mg/100 g) and nitrites (0.29 mg/100 g).