Effect of Different Levels of Tomato Silage Pulp on Yield, Blood Metabolites, Nutrient Digestibility and Production Volatile Fatty Acid in Baluchi Lambs

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of replacing different levels of tomato pulp silage as a fiber source on yield, microbial fermentation, volatile fatty acid production and blood metabolites in Baluchi sheep. This study was conducted in a completely randomized design with 30 Baluchi lambs with 3 treatments of 10 lambs and average weight of 25 ± 1.5 kg. The trial period was 90 days. Experimental treatments include: 1). the basal diet only corn silage 2). The basal diet + corn silage containing 5% tomato pulp 3). The basal diet + corn silage contained 10% tomato pulp. Results of dry matter intake and body weight change showed no significant difference between the experimental diets. Based on the results of this experiment, plasma glucose concentration was normal in all experimental animals and were not affected by the experimental diets. The amount of rumen fluid in the experimental sheep decreased with the use of tomato pulp silage in the diet and had a significant difference (p<0.05) with the control group. In general, according to the results, using tomato silage as a by-product of up to 10% can improve production performance.