Determination of nutritive value and effects of olifterent levels replacement of ensiled pistachio epicarp with corn silage on fattening parameters and lamb performance

This study was conducted to investigate nutritive value of ensiled pistachio epicarp, possibility of different levels replacement of ensiled pistachio epicarp with corn silage and its effects on growth rate and carcass composition of lambs. To investigate nutritive value, gas production experiment, dry matter and crude protein digestibility by nylon bag method and determination of digestibility by two-stage Tilley and Terry method were done. Four groups of ten male lambs (age 6 months and average weight 35.23±0.66 Kg), were fed for 90 days, iso-caloric, iso-nitrogenous diets, containing either no added ensiled pistachio epicarp (control) and added levels 8.7, 17.33 and 26 percentage ensiled pistachio epicarp in rations (based on dry matter). After 90 days feeding, the lambs were slaughtered. The results showed that feeding lambs with ensiled pistachio epicarp up to 8.7 percentage of total dry matter intake did not affect lambs performance, feed conversion, body composition and health of animals. Pistachio by-product or the residue of pistachio after peeling has potentially high nutritive value but its biological effects in ruminants have not been studied extensively. Iran is one the main pistachio producer in the world and majority of pistachio is being produced in Kerman province. There is about 298939 hectares of pistachio garden in Iran and annual dry pistachio production is 307036 tones. The by-product of pistachio is about 491257 ton annually. This by-product contains: %64.5 epicarp, %25 cluster, %10 leaf and %0.5 nut and shell. There are some problems with this by-product are including: 1- deterioration in less than 24 hours so it could not stored for long term. 2-Pistachio epicarp contains high level of tannins and other phenolic compounds, and there is little information about its effects in ruminants. 3- This by-product is potentially an environmental pollutant and cost effective for disposal. This project was conducted to study the nutritive value of dried and ensiled pistachio by-product and assess its effect on performance of fattening lambs.