Nutritive value of cactus pear silages for finishing lambs

The objective of the present research was to evaluate the nutritive value and the fermentationcharacteristics of cactus pear silages and diets including them for growing lambs. There weretwo cactus pear silage types: one made from cladodes and the other combining cladodes andcactus pear fruit. Similarly, it was calculated the gas potential emission index (GPEI; dL lamb-1day-1). The four diets: control (with not silage, NSD), including corn silage (CSD), or cladodecactus pear silage (CCSD), or cladode-fruit cactus pear silage (CFSD) were iso-nitrogenous(15% CP) and iso-energetic (2.7 Mcal of ME kg-1 of dry matter) fulfilling the requirements forfinishing lambs. Eight commercial cross lambs (23±3.0 kg liveweight) were used, under a 4 x 4replicated Latin Square design. The results indicated that the CCSD and CFSD had 3% more(P<0.05) dry matter (DM) content than the CSD, but the later had more (P<0.05) protein (80 gkg-1) and greater digestibility (60%) than the CCSD and CFSD (50 g kg-1 and 50%). The dietswith CCSD and CFSD had more (P<0.05) crude protein (160 g kg-1) than the control and CSD(150 g kg-1 DM). The in vitro digestibility of the control diet was greater (P<0.05) than the otherdiets, although the DM voluntary intake, apparent digestibility, and the acid detergent fiber(ADF) were not different (P>0.05). The neutral detergent fiber (NDF) was greater (P<0.05) indiets including silages in comparison to the control diet. Lambs fed with control or CCSD dietshad a gas potential production of 350 and 370 L lamb-1 d-1, in comparison to 200 and 210 Llamb-1 d-1 from CSD and CFSD diets. It is concluded that the nutritive and in vitro fermentativequalities of the CCS and CFS were similar to CS, thus, their inclusion in diets for finishing lambscan be considered as a feeding alternative, and more importantly, CFS could mitigate theemission of greenhouse gases.