Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
Abstract
Information about animal requirement, available forage and its quality is fundamental for successful range forage and livestock management. Since sheep is dominant grazing animal on rangelands in Iran and there are about 27 sheep breeds and each breed has special body size and physiological condition, different daily nutrition requirements need to be considered. It is necessary daily requirement of each breed based on quality of available forage be determined which was the main objective of this research for Moghani sheep breed in Kalibar rangelands in eastern Azerbaijan province of Iran. Vegetation composition was formed by 11 species including Hordeum glavum, Aegilops sylindrica, Artemisia fragrans, Agropyron trichophorum, Festuca ovina, Dactylis glomerata, Stipa barbata, Sinapis arvensis, Bromus tectorum, Bromus tomentellus and Kochia prostrata. Among them Hordeum glavum, Aegilops sylindrica, Artemisia fragrans, Stipa barbata, Sinapis arvensis, Bromus tomentellus, and Kochia prostrata were existed in lowland, and other species were observed in highlands. Samples were collected from an exclosure about 25-31 of May in flowering stage and 4-6 of July in maturity stage. Forage quality was evaluated based on chemical combination including crude protein (CP), acid detergent fiber (ADF), dry matter digestibility (DMD) and metabolizable energy (ME). For comparison of results One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used. Duncan test was used to determine inside changing sources and comparing species and location with pFestuca ovina and lowest forage quality was obtained in Hordeum glavum. Among two Phenological stages of (flowering & maturity) the higher percent of CP, DMD and rate of ME were obtained in flowering stage and the lowest percent were belonged to maturity stage. The higher percent of ADF was measured for maturity stage and the lowest Percent of ADF was obtained in flowering stage. Thus there were significant differences (p<0.01) between ADF, CP & ME of species. There were also significant differences between chemical components of species in different phenological stages and areas. Moghani sheep daily requirement based on MAFF equation considering forage quality and physical condition of the areas in two phonological stages and maintenance condition with 40% additional requirement were 1.39 kg DM and 2.14 kg DM in flowering and maturity plant growth stages respectively. Generally considering average metabolizable energy of species daily animal requirement in highland and lowland were 1.53 and 1.95 kg DM respectively.
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