Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

THE LEVEL OF FEED DIGESTIBILITY AND THE PRODUCTIVITY INDICES OF BULLS FED ON LEGUMINOUS CROPS

Sergei Ivanovich Nikolaev, Yedige Nassambayev, Aliya Bolatovna Akhmetalieva, Svetlana Viktorovna Schekhranova and Yerkingali Azamatovich Batyrgaliyev

Abstract

Nowadays, one of the urgent problems is the search for alternative sources of protein, the lack of which is becoming worse. In this connection, studies were carried out on the efficiency of the use of chickpeas of the Privo-1 sort of the Volgograd selection in comparison with peas in the diets of the bulls of the Kazakh white-headed breed in the conditions of the Agricultural Production Cooperative «Breeding farm «Krasny Oktyabr» of the Pallasovsky District of the Volgograd Region. The results of the study of the chemical, amino acid and mineral compositions showed that the grain of chickpea Privo-1 was not inferior to the pea: it was higher by 1.03% for dry matter, by 1.1% for crude protein, by 1.15% for crude fat, by 2.02% for the sum of amino acids. Replacement of peas for chickpea Privo-1 promoted better digestibility of nutrients in rations, which affected the dynamics of live weight, the average daily growth and the relative growth rate. Beginning from the age of 9 months, the bulls of the experimental group exceeded the live weight of their counterparts from the control group by 1.44 kg or 0.59%, and at the end of the experiment, at the age of 18 months – by 11.4 kg or 2.09%. With an increase in the live weight, there was an increase in the average daily increment. So, this indicator in bulls of the control group on the average for the entire period of the experiment was at the level of 1052.0 g, and in the experimental bulls – at the level of 1083.5 g, which was by 2.99% higher compared to the control group. Based on the results of the conducted studies, it was established that the use of chickpeas of the Privo-1 variety in feeding of the replacement bulls of the Kazakh white-headed breed positively influenced the intensity of their growth and economic indicators.