IRANIAN JOURNAL OF APPLIED ANIMAL SCIENCE, cilt.8, sa.1, ss.131-136, 2018 (ESCI)
This study was carried out to determine the nutritional value of different chickpea varieties using in vitro gas production technique. As a result, significant variations in terms of chemical composition, gas production rate and metabolizable energy, net lactation energy and digestible organic matter were found among the 8 different chickpea varieties. The crude protein contents of chickpea varieties ranged from 15.26 to 18.52% DM; the crude fat contents of chickpea varieties ranged from 4.14 to 5.33% DM; ash content of chickpea seeds varied from 2.69 to 3.46% DM. The neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) contents of chickpea varieties varied from 12.46 to 17.29% DM and 3.80 to 4.87% DM, respectively. 24 h total in vitro gas production of varieties ranged from 58.67 to 81.66 mL/200 mg dry matter (DM). The calculated metabolizable energy (ME) and digestible organic matter (DOM) contents of chickpea varieties ranged from 10.25 to 13.83 MJ/kg DM and 68.69 to 91.64%, respectively. In conclusion, chickpea can be used successfully for ruminant feeding and also cagatay and Izmir 92 varieties are better than the other varieties studied according to their nutritive values.