The Use of Potato Aerial Parts in the Diet of Fattening Male lambs as a Complete Feed Block

Background: Agricultural residues are used in large quantities to feed domestic animals.The role of agricultural waste is more prominent in the rural livestock system and in areas where agriculture and animal husbandry are common.In dry seasons when fresh and sufficient fodder is not available and also in areas where the climatic conditions are not suitable and there is a shortage of animal feed, the use of agricultural waste can reduce the price of feed and improve environmental sustainability.Considering the competition between humans and animals for many food items and the limitation of basic production resources, and on the other hand, the high levels of waste and waste in the agricultural sector, the optimal use of these wastes can play a significant role in the prosperity of animal husbandry and reducing the price of animal feed, and finally Increase livestock production.On the other hand, it is not possible to allocate more land and water for the production of animal feed items than the current level, so the use and exploitation of agricultural by-products is one of the necessities of the animal husbandry industry.By using local and available agricultural residues, cheaper and more affordable rations can be prepared, and this helps a lot to compensate for the lack of food items and overcome current challenges, including recent droughts.In complete feed blocks, feed items are mixed in the ration, so the ration is more palatable, and with this method, unconventional feeds can be used in the ration and fed to the livestock.The purpose of this study was the possibility of replacing potato vein in complete feed blocks.Methods: This experiment was conducted for 90 days on 24 Kurdish male lambs of plain area with an average age of 7 months and an average weight of 32.7 1.90 kg in a completely randomized design with four treatments and six replications.To prepare potato foliage, after the physiological growth of the potato tuber is over (when the leaves start to turn brown) and can be agronomically harvested, before the potato tuber could harvested, the fodder part of the potato harvested, moved outside the field, aerated, dried and then threshed.Chopped potato fodder was converted into complete feed blocks in the Sanandaj Jikdaneh poultry and animal feed production plant along with other ration components in different proportions to prepare experimental treatments.Experimental treatments included diet without potato leaves and diets containing 15, 25 and 35% aerial parts of potato, respectively.The chemical compositions of the samples were determined, and the measured nutrients included the amount of ash, ADF, NDF, crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber, crude energy, calcium, and phosphorus.The measured traits included daily weight gain, feed consumption, and feed conversion ratio.After the experiment, the economic evaluation of the treatments was done based on the given rations and the performance of the animals.After fasting for 12 hours before giving the morning meal, the weight of the animals was measured once every 15 days, and then daily weight gain estimated.The refusals were collected every morning before offering the feed and weighed every fifteen days.By deducting the amount of feed given from the residual amount, the dry matter intake was determined.The feed conversion ratio was obtained by dividing the amount of feed consumed by the amount of live weight.Results: Chemical compositions of potato aerial parts including crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber, ADF, NDF, ash, calcium, and phosphorus (percentage in dry matter) 14.1, 0.42, 30, 40, 18, 3.2 and 0.11 respectively and gross energy 3.58 mcal/kg was obtained.The mean daily weight