Biological value of green amaranth mass and its use in composition of combined silos for young pigs

Abstract

Every year in Ukraine and around the world, the demand for grain products increases, which leads to increased competition between humans and animals. The increase in global grain prices makes livestock production more expensive and less profitable. In turn, the change in natural climatic conditions, the shortage of energy resources prompts scientists to search for fodder crops that would be high-yielding, cheap, biologically complete, ecologically clean, able to effectively influence the productivity of animals and replace part of grain fodder. Today, the climatic conditions of the Polissia region, selection and advanced technologies ensure the growth of the cultivation of rare fodder crops. In addition, there is growing interest in introduced plants and the introduction process itself. These are high-yielding plants with a high content of biologically complete protein, capable of forming powerful biomass in a short growing season and being resistant to adverse environmental factors. Studying the results of research on the use of nontraditional crops, which include the amaranth family (Amaranthus L), in our opinion, the issue of finding scientifically based types of pig feeding using cheap and highly nutritious juicy fodder is of great importance. In order to realize this goal, the following tasks were set: to investigate the phenological parameters, yield and chemical composition of the green mass of amaranth according to the phases of growth and development; develop silage recipes and determine the optimal amount of amaranth green mass in the composition of combined silages for fattening young pigs. When developing recipes for combined silages, we followed the following requirements: combined silage should have a high energy value of about 4 MJ in one kilogram of feed; the content of digestible protein per feed unit is 80-100 g and the optimal amount of organic acids. It was established that the maximum yield of amaranth green mass (245.5 t/ha) and the yield of dry matter (62.5 t/ha) was obtained in the phase of wax maturity. It is advisable to include 20-26% of the green mass of amaranth in the composition of combined silos in the conditions of the Polissia of Ukraine and feed it to pigs for fattening from 55% to 75% in terms of total nutrition. Key words: pigs, green mass, productivity, nutrients, feeding.