Comparison of in vitro Gas Production, Nutritive Value, Metabolizable Energy and Organic Matter Digestibility of some Chickpea Varieties

This study was carried out to determine the nutritional value of different chickpea varieties using in vitro gas production technique. As a result, significant variations in terms of chemical composition, gas produc-tion rate and metabolizable energy, net lactation energy and digestible organic matter were found among the 8 different chickpea varieties. The crude protein contents of chickpea varieties ranged from 15.26 to 18.52% DM; the crude fat contents of chickpea varieties ranged from 4.14 to 5.33% DM; ash content of chickpea seeds varied from 2.69 to 3.46% DM. The neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) contents of chickpea varieties varied from 12.46 to 17.29% DM and 3.80 to 4.87% DM, respec-tively. 24 h total in vitro gas production of varieties ranged from 58.67 to 81.66 mL/200 mg dry matter (DM). The calculated metabolizable energy (ME) and digestible organic matter (DOM) contents of chick-pea varieties ranged from 10.25 to 13.83 MJ/kg DM and 68.69 to 91.64%, respectively. In conclusion, chickpea can be used successfully for ruminant feeding and also Çağatay and Izmir 92 varieties are better than the other varieties studied according to their nutritive values.