Hadjipanayiotou et al., 2003. Livest. Res. Rural Dev., 13 (6)

Chemical composition, in situ degradability, in vitro digestibility of OM and amino-acid composition of 8 protein supplements used in livestock diets have been determined in the present study. Within legume seeds, Cyprus vetch had the highest (35.7%) content in CP followed by common vetch (31.5%); the CP content of chickpeas, field beans, narbon vetch and peas were relatively close (24-27%). True protein as percent of total-CP ranged from 83 to 94%; chickpeas having the lowest (83%), and peas the highest (94%). Chickpeas had  higher fat (5.3%) content than all other grains (1.14-1.62%). Legume seeds were rich sources of K (1.22%) and P (0.52%) and their Ca content was only around 25 and 10% of their P and K content, respectively. Overall, food legumes were good sources of Ca (0.14%), P, Fe (123 ppm) and Cu (15 ppm). Peas had the highest “D” value (95.5%) followed by Cyprus vetch (92.3%). The “D” value of the other grains ranged from 86 to 89%, and was close to that of soybean meal (88%). Legume grains were rich in lysine (1.79%) and poor in methionine (0.42%). The percentage of amino-acids to total-CP was similar in narbon vetch (98.7%), peas (95.0%) and soybean meal (96.0%); the corresponding values for common vetch, chickpeas, cyprus vetch and field beans were 71, 87, 83 and 82%, respectively. Effective CP degradability (ECPdg) in soybean meal was lower (P<0.05) than that of all other legume seeds, and of sunflower meal. Among legume seeds chickpeas had the lowest ECPdg followed in increasing order by common vetch, narbon vetch, peas, cyprus vetch and field beans. There were no significant differences in ECPdg between peas, chickpeas, common vetch and narbon vetch.