THE USE OF PEAT AS A FEEDSTUFF IN ANIMAL HUSBANDRY

V. E. Rakovskii, G. S. Montulyak, I. A. Palmin, A. N. Sventikhovskaya

The Soviet Union possesses enormous reserves of high-moor, slightly decomposed sphagnum peat. In the territory of the RSFSR alone, up to 5 billion tons of such peat have been identified. Belorussia, the Baltic republics, and other regions of our country are rich in this peat. Many bogged areas, including bogged forests, have a continuous cover of sphagnum mosses. In individual peat deposits, the thickness of slightly decomposed sphagnum peat amounts to several meters.

The production of peat bedding and peat-insulation boards at the present stage cannot fully utilize the richest reserves of this valuable peat raw material, which contains up to 40–50% carbohydrates (on a dry-matter basis).

One of the directions in the utilization of these peats is the preparation, on their basis, of feedstuffs for animal husbandry.

Research in this field has been conducted, beginning at the end of the last century, both in our country and abroad. In Germany, for example, a method was proposed for feeding sphagnum mosses to horses. But this method did not become widespread, since it met with objections from some livestock breeders, in whose opinion sphagnum moss cannot be digested by animals, for it carries the nutrients of feeds out of the digestive tract undigested. Subsequently it was proposed to flavor the mosses with molasses. However, this method also did not become widespread.

In recent years, work on the use of slightly decomposed sphagnum peats as feedstuffs has been carried out at the Peat Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the BSSR. Sphagnum peat was subjected, during steaming, to hydrolysis with weak solutions of hydrochloric acid, and then the excess acid was neutralized with ammonia. Peat treated in this way was ensiled with the green mass of various agricultural crops and fed to animals.

During the last 2 years, the laboratory for the comprehensive processing of peat of the Kalinin Polytechnic Institute has been engaged in solving the problem of using slightly decomposed peats. This laboratory has developed and proposed two new methods for using the above-mentioned peats as feedstuffs in animal husbandry: peat molasses and the joint ensiling of various agricultural plants with sphagnum peat after preliminary self-heating in a stack.

Table 1

Comparison of the chemical composition of roots of soybean and pea grown by the peat-field method with the chemical composition of hay (on an absolutely dry matter basis)

Content of carotene in seeds and green mass of plants grown by the peat-field method

Carotene calculated per absolutely dry matter, mg%

Peat-Based Cultivation

Peat-based cultivation is a method of growing green mass of various agricultural crops on peat, with subsequent feeding to certain animal species not only of the plants but also of the peat substrate itself together with the roots.

On the basis of the analytical studies we have carried out, it may be concluded that the green mass of young plants constitutes a vitamin–protein supplement rich in phosphorus. The crude-protein content varies, depending on the species of the crop sown, from 40 to 60% (on a dry-matter basis). The content of $\mathrm{P_2O_5}$ in young maize plants is almost 2% (on a dry-matter basis), which is 2.5 times greater than in the grain.

The carotene content in the green mass of various agricultural crops grown under conditions of peat-based cultivation ranges from 16 to 24.5 mg/% (on an absolutely dry-weight basis), which is hundreds of times higher than in the original seeds (Table 1).

The roots of the crops we tested (maize, peas, oats, barley, soybeans) contain up to 33% crude protein. The content of all nutrients (including lipids and sugars), not counting fiber, amounts to more than 50% of the dry matter of the roots. The chemical composition of the roots is given in Table 1. The characteristics of the initial peats are given in Tables 2 and 3.

Table 2

Botanical characteristics of the peats used for peat-based cultivation and ensiling

Continuation of Table 2

Experiments on feeding products of peat cultivation to pigs were conducted by us at the “Sakharovo” farm of the Kalinin Agricultural Experimental Station, under the direction of the head of the animal husbandry department, Candidate of Agricultural Sciences A. A. Zagrishchev.

The peat substrate was fed together with root crops to young pigs being fattened, while the green mass was fed only to piglets.

A total of 4 experiments on feeding peat substrate were carried out. The experiments yielded positive results. The best data were obtained when young fattening pigs were fed peat substrate from peas. The average daily gains of the animals, compared with the control, increased on average in the 4 experiments by 11.2%. The weakest gain (only 6% above the control) was obtained when feeding a peat substrate whose initial peat contained more humic substances and considerably more bitumens than the two other raised-bog peats used. However, when the dose of this more humified peat substrate was reduced by half in feeding (100 g instead of 200 g per young pig per day), the average daily gain increased by 15.8% compared with the control (Table 4).

The organic matter of peat, as well as of the peat substrate, does not contain a significant amount of nutrients for pigs. Therefo-

Table 3

Content of chemical elements and groups of organic substances in high-moor peats (the peat enterprise “Orshinskoe-1,” Kalinin Oblast) used for peat and silage preparation

Continuation of Table 3

Table 4

Feeding peat substrate

*) OR — main ration.

it is advisable to assume that the effectiveness of peat substrate in such small doses is due to the biologically active substances it contains (enzymes, vitamins, antibiotics).

Testing this assumption became the main subject of our further work jointly with biochemists, microbiologists, and animal scientists.

It should be noted that in many farms of Kalinin and other regions, sod, prepared in the autumn, has long been used in the winter period for feeding to piglets. Feeding sod protects young animals from mortality. Feeding it to piglets is also recommended by Academician A. K. Redkin. In this connection, the peat-bed substrate may be regarded as a deliberately produced sod.

A peat-bed installation of 150 m², with daily use of peat substrate from an area of 10 m² and with the green-mass crop harvested every 15 days, will provide daily supplementary feeding for more than one thousand piglets.

Preliminary calculations have shown that one ruble spent on peat-bed culture yields more than four rubles of profit, or, calculated per one thousand piglets, 1,360 rubles per month.

Ensiling agricultural plants with sphagnum peat.

It is known that during storage of milled peat—especially slightly decomposed high-moor peat—under the influence of a number of different factors, a process of self-heating and even spontaneous combustion occurs. In this process, profound changes take place in the chemical composition of the self-heating peat. In particular, the above-mentioned peats become enriched with water-soluble substances, including water-soluble sugars. In some cases the content of these substances in self-heating high-moor sphagnum peat rises to the level found in meadow hay.

Our studies have shown that the period of maximum enrichment of slightly decomposed high-moor peat with water-soluble substances in the process of self-heating basically coincides with the season for preparing ensiled feeds (August–October). This circumstance makes possible and, in our view, promising the use of self-heating high-moor peats of a low degree of decomposition as a component of silage.

For an experimental-farm verification of this method, in September 1964 the Kalinin Polytechnic Institute, together with the Kalinin Agricultural Experimental Station, prepared a large batch of peat-plant silage.

For ensiling, the following were used: self-heating Magellanicum peat with a degree of decomposition of 10–15% (Tables 2, 3) and green corn mass at the milk-wax stage of ear maturity. Peat-corn silage was laid down in two variants: with 20% and 40% peat content on the dry matter of the silage.

After 3 months, zootechnical and chemical studies established the good quality of the experimental batches of peat-corn silages.

In the winter-spring period of 1965, two feeding trials with these silages were carried out: one trial on dairy cows and the other on bull calves. The trial on cows lasted 3 months, and that on bull calves, 1 month.

Each cow was fed daily 20 kg of peat-corn silage, and the bull calves, 8.5 kg.

It has been established:

1. Peat–corn silage containing high-moor, slightly decomposed peat that has undergone self-heating, in an amount of 20 to 40% (of the silage dry matter), does not possess toxic properties.

2. The consumption by animals of silage with a 20% peat content is the same as that of pure corn silage, while with a 40% peat content it is lower.

3. Feeding peat–corn silage with a peat content of 20 to 40% to dairy cows does not reduce their productivity. The best results (a 7% increase in milk yield) were obtained for silage with a 20% peat content.

4. Feeding peat–corn silage with a 20% peat content to young cattle ensured an increase in the animals’ average daily gain by almost 11%. Feeding bulls silage with a 40% peat content not only failed to produce a positive effect but, on the contrary, reduced the magnitude of their average daily gain compared with the control. This circumstance must be taken into account when dosing peat–plant silages for feeding to various agricultural animals, proceeding from the concentration of biologically active substances which, apparently, are contained in the peat component of peat–plant silages.

Calculations showed that replacing pure corn silage in the ration of cows with peat–corn silage (under the conditions of the experimental farm of the Kalinin Agricultural Station) made it possible to obtain a profit of 1 ruble 62 kopecks per cow per month for silage with a 20% peat content and, respectively, 1 ruble 87 kopecks for silage with a 40% peat content. Feeding bulls peat–corn silage with a 20% peat content ensured a profit of 2 rubles 23 kopecks per animal per month.

Studies on the use of high-moor, slightly decomposed peats as feedstuffs in animal husbandry were included in the plan of nationally important work for 1965–66, which attests to the national-economic significance of this problem.

Conclusions

1. One of the directions in the use of high-moor, slightly decomposed sphagnum peats is the preparation, on their basis, of feedstuffs for animal husbandry.

2. Peat cutting and the combined ensiling of various agricultural plants with sphagnum peat make it possible not only to expand the feed base of animal husbandry, but also to increase its productivity.