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Feeding rabbits.. the most important agricultural waste that can be used

Agricultural waste is everything that is produced incidentally or secondary during the production of field crops, whether during harvesting or during the preparation for marketing or processing of these crops. The benefit of these agricultural wastes must be maximized by converting them into organic fertilizers, fodder, clean energy, or manufacturing them to achieve clean horizontal agriculture and protect Environment from pollution and providing employment opportunities in the agricultural sector, thus improving the economic and environmental situation.

Agricultural crops that can be offered to the rabbit

Rabbits

Utilization of agricultural crop residues in rabbit diets.

In Egypt, animal production is still faced with many problems, the most important of which is the lack of fodder, especially concentrated fodder, despite the introduction of various non-traditional materials. However, the available foodstuffs are almost sufficient for 60% of the animal’s needs, and the food gap may reach approximately 4-5 million tons of concentrated fodder. We find that The proportional composition between rough and concentrated feeds is 82% rough and 18% concentrated. And part of these concentrated materials are competing with humans and animals, hence the importance of resorting to non-traditional fodder sources and including them in animal nutrition.

Especially if we know that the amount of these materials is estimated at more than 44 million tons annually (Ministry of Agriculture 2017). Despite the availability of the huge amount of these wastes, only 25% of these wastes are not used, but they have not been estimated, but they are burned and cause many problems to pollute the environment, and it is possible that about 10-50% of such wastes enter into the formation of diets.

Types of agricultural waste that can be used to feed rabbits

First: Field waste, which is all the waste that is produced at the field level and is divided into:

1. Field waste of vegetable origin (crop waste): It is all the waste that is produced during harvesting, collecting or combining field crops, or during their preparation for marketing. Most of these wastes are produced at the field level and among farmers. This type of waste represents the largest amount of agricultural waste ever All wastes of this type are poor in protein and in their nutritional value if they are used in their raw form in animal feed. These wastes include “rice straw, wheat straw, barley, beans, lentils, alfalfa, chickpeas, corn stover, corn bark, and the thrones of horticultural crops and vegetables.”

2. Field waste of animal origin (animal waste, which is animal and poultry waste during their presence in farms or production stations, and includes “animal waste (animal dung), poultry droppings and bedding” and rumen waste. These wastes are distinguished by their high content of crude protein, reaching a percentage of to about 20%, although more than half of the elements present in the residue are non-protein materials, which limits the use of these residues in poultry feed and can be used in rabbit feed Second: Agricultural industrial waste, which is all that is produced incidentally or secondary during the preservation or processing of agricultural crops for various purposes Whether these crops are vegetable or animal, these wastes include many types, including:

• Residues of oil presses, such as: all the gains resulting after pressing the oil, such as the peeled and unpeeled cottonseed earnings, the flaxseed earnings, and others.

• Residues of mills and mills such as: wheat bran, corn bran and barley bran.

• Residues of starch factories such as: maize gluten, maize husks, and residues of maize and rice starch industries.

• Residues of sugar factories such as: sugar cane molasses, sugar beet molasses and dry sugar beet pulp.

• Remnants of fruit and vegetable preservation factories, such as: eggplant, strawberry, tomato, potato, bean, pea, cauliflower, sugar beet, cabbage waste, turnip and its roots, and okra manufacturing waste.

Examples of the use of some types of agricultural residues in feeding rabbits:

Nigella sativa cake: It was found that the use of 5% and Nigella sativa in rabbit food can be recommended as natural stimulants to improve growth, as Nigella sativa cake contains 24% protein and 12% fiber. Azolla is a small fern plant that lives floating on the surface of the water and is not alone, as it is associated with a type of algae that performs a kind of symbiotic living with Azolla, and works to fix atmospheric nitrogen and is used as a source of protein, as it contains a high percentage of protein ranging between 25-30% of protein and 12-14% Of fiber, Azolla can be used in rabbit diets up to 60% of the diet.

– Azolla plant silage The possibility of substituting Azolla plant silage with the coarse outgrowths of agricultural crops to replace the commercial integrated diet up to 30% in the diets of growing rabbits without any adverse effects on growth and with economic efficiency under local conditions. It contains about 17% protein and 21% fiber. – Jawar meal Korma meal was used in the diets of growing rabbits up to 8% (50% of soybean meal) with the addition of the beta-maninase enzyme to get rid of anti-nutritional substances. The use of Jawar meal reduced the cost of the diet without any negative effect on the productive performance of rabbits. It contains 49% of protein and 8% of fiber.

- Castor meal: Chemically treated castor meal or biologically treated castor meal can be used up to 20% of soybean meal in the diet of rabbit mothers without any negative effect on the performance of mothers or the productive characteristics of the offspring, in addition to improving the economic efficiency. It contains 33% protein and 12% fiber.

– Watercress meal and almond meal It was found that the use of watercress meal and almond meal in feeding plants (96I) has high economic efficiency, and the best value of relative economic efficiency was for the treatment of 50% treated watercress meal (143.00), and the lowest value was for the treatment of 25% untreated watercress meal (96.14) compared to In other levels and control, as watercress meal and almond meal contain 31 and 40% of protein and also contain 10 and 15% of fiber, respectively.Broccoli waste is used as a source of fiber. Rabbits As it contains 25% protein and 13% fiber Lemongrass From an economic point of view it turns out that rabbit food containing 10% lemongrass can be recommended as natural stimulants to improve growth It contains 5% protein and 40% fiber.

Potato thrones The possibility of replacing biologically treated potato thrones in the rations of growing rabbits at rates of 50 and 100% instead of wheat bran and reducing the cost of feeding without any harmful effects on growth. It contains 15% protein and 12% fiber.

– Date waste sorting The sorted dates were used as an energy source in rabbit diets at a level of up to 75% of barley in growing rabbits and mothers, and thus works to reduce the cost of diet without any negative impact on the performance of growing rabbits and the reproductive efficiency of mothers. It contains 5% protein and 9% fiber. By-products of distillation of dry maize grains with liquids (DDGS): It is concluded from this study that it is possible to economically replace (DDGS) as a protein source in rabbit diets up to a replacement rate of 30% of the protein of the diet or 75 and 18 of the components of the diet without adverse effects on growth in rabbits. It contains 27% of crude protein and 8% of fiber.

– Dry chicory leaves are used as natural food additives. From the results we conclude that rabbits fed on rations supplemented with 1% dry chicory leaves showed the best results regarding growth performance, digestion parameters, nutritional value, blood components, as well as the best results regarding carcass characteristics, mortality rate and also Microbial activity and economic efficiency. It contains 14% protein and 16% fiber. Pomegranate peel Dry pomegranate peel can be added up to 1% in rabbit diets to improve the performance of growing rabbits under local conditions. From the foregoing, it is clear the importance of by-products in filling part of the nutritional gap in animal nutrition, which raises the economic return of animal and rabbit production projects.