Nutritional Characterization of By-products of Dates and Palm for Livestock Feeding in Southern Tunisia

In order to guarantee food supplements local livestock in Tunisian oases, the by-products palms and date rubbish have been characterized. Nutritional values of six varieties of palms (Aligue, Arechti, Degla, Gondi, Kintichi, Akhwat) and six varieties of dates (Mnakher, Khalt, Deglat, Kintichi, Aligue, Akhwat) from the oases were evaluated for chemical composition, in vitro gas production and digestibility of organic matter (OMD), metabolizable energy (ME) and the total concentration of volatile fatty acids (SCFA). The chemical composition was significantly different (p<0.05) among byproducts palm and waste dates. Palms exhibited values of CP, NDF and ADF. The scrap value of dates offers a relatively high energy (0.88 UFL / kg DM) comparable to concentrate feed. The mean values of VFA, MS, OMD showed significant differences (p<0.05) among and within species. The variety Kintichi had the highest values (1.18± 0.05 mmol/syringe, 3017 kcal/kg DM and 63.09 %, for SCFA, EM, and OM digestibility, respectively). It is clear that dates may be downgraded to concentrated food energy that could even replace grains (barley, oats, etc.). For livestock, while the studied palmproducts can be classified as roughages, comparable to straw or hay of poor quality.