Nutritional Value of Vegetable Wastes as Livestock Feed

ABSTRACT: A study was carried out to evaluate the nutritional value of waste from lettuce, green cabbage, red cabbage and cauliflower to determine their potential use for feeding to livestock. Vegetable wastes were dried in a solar tunnel drier. The crude protein (CP), ether extract (EE), total ash, acid detergent fiber (ADF) and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) were 24.1, 2.7, 24.7, 29.3 and 29.0%; 17.7, 2.3, 13.7, 25.6, and 28.7%; 11.9, 1.9, 8.8, 23.1 and 25.6%; 10.3, 0.5, 7.0, 16.1 and 19.6 % (DM basis) in cauliflower, lettuce, green cabbage and red cabbage, respectively. The gross energy (MJ/kg DM) in cauliflower  and green cabbage (16.9 and 16.6) was higher than that observed in red cabbage and lettuce (14.1 and14.3). The red and green cabbage waste had higher net gas production (73 and 71 ml/g DM/12h) compared to the lettuce and cauliflower vegetable waste (51 and 48 ml/g DM/12h respectively). The green and red cabbage waste had significantly higher metabolizable energy (ME) (approximately 12 MJ/kg DM) than both lettuce and cauliflower waste (approximately 9 MJ/kg DM). The in vitro DM and OM digestibility (OMD) in green and red cabbage waste was significantly higher than in lettuce and cauliflower. The green and red cabbage waste had significantly higher short chain fatty acids (SCFA) (1.7 and 1.6 µmol) than lettuce and cauliflower (1.2 and 1.1 µmol). It was concluded that leafy vegetable waste (lettuce, green cabbage, red cabbage and cauliflower) is an excellent source of nutrients which can potentially be used after drying as an animal feed to reduce animal feeding costs and consequently increase farmers’ profits. This would also help in waste management and the reduction of environmental pollution.