The nutritive value of sunflower meal and its effect on replacing cereal straw in the diets of lactating ewes and goats

Abstract

The chemical composition, in vitro and in vivo digestibility, degradability of crude protein (CP) in the rumen and voluntary intake of sunflower meal were determined. Two trials one with 48 lactating Chios ewes and the other with 48 lactating Damascus goats were also carried out to test the effect of replacing cereal straw by sunflower meal in their diets. In each trial a group of ewes or goats were fed concentrates without sunflower meal and cereal straw and the other group of ewes or goats were fed concentrates containing sunflower meal and half the quantity of cereal straw of the first group. CP and crude fibre (CF) of sunflower meal were 34.0 and 26.0% (dry matter basis), respectively, in vitro “ D” value was 57.3%, digestibility coefficients of organic matter (OM), CP and Neutral Detergent Fibre (NDF) were 58.9, 83.80 and 33.8%, respectively, and voluntary dry matter (DM) intake was 1.21 kg (56.3 g/kgW 0.75) per head daily. Lactating ewes fed the concentrate mixture without sunflower meal and 600 g straw per head daily produced similar milk yield and milk with similar fat and energy contents and had the same liveweight changes with ewes fed the concentrates with sunflower meal and 300 g straw per head daily. Similar results were also obtained with the lactating goats. It was concluded that the CP content, CP digestibility and CF content of undecorticated sunflower meal are high and that sunflower meal can replace up to 50% of cereal straw (300 g/head/daily) in the diets of medium producing lactating small ruminants during periods of high scarcity of roughage.