Estimation of Nutritional Value of Almond Tree Leaves as a Feedstuffs for Ruminants Using Gas Production Technique

The aim of this study was to determine the chemical composition and to estimate the metabolizable energy and digestible organic matter of almond tree leaves. During the fall season, experimental materials were collected from different parts of East Azerbaijan province. After diying the samples and provide uniform mixing, chemical composition including dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), ether extract (EE), crude ash (CA), cell wall (NDF), cell wall without hemicellulose (ADF) and nonfibrous carbohydrates (NFC) averaged, 91.32, 6.76, 3.5, 8.80, 20.8, 15.8 and 60.14%, respectively. Gas production test with mixtures of filtered rumen liquid of two Taleshi native male cattle rumen in times of 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 24, 48, 72 and 96 hours were performed. The amounts of gas produced after 24 and 96 hours incubation, were equivalent to 52.89 and 60.05 ml per 200 mg diy matter of sample respectively. The digestibility of organic matter was 74.96 percent and, metabolizable energy was 11.03 (Mj kg-1 DM). Based on these results we can say that the almond tree leaves has relatively good nutritional value for ruminant nutrition.