干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

Information on forage quality of halophytes in 3 phenological stages could help range managers to determine suitable grazing time to achieve higher animal performance in saline rangelands. Salsola arbuscula Pall. a perennial plant species and resistant to drought and salinity, is distributed in the winter rangelands of the deserts. This plant with Astragalus squarrosus forms a vegetation type in the desert region of Kashan, located in the central region of Iran. To study the forage quality of Salsola arbuscula at three growth stages (vegetative, flowering and seeding), the branches of 10 specimens were randomly sampled with three replications. Then, the samples were dried and milled. Vegetative growth stage is from mid-March to mid-May, flowering is from mid-May to late June and seeding stage starts from early July. Eight forage quality traits including DMD (Dry matter digestibility), WSC (Water-soluble carbohydrate), CP (Crude protein), CF (Crude fiber), ADF (Acid detergent fiber), NDF (Neutral detergent fiber), Ash and ME (Metabolizable energy) were measured. Data were analyzed in a completely randomized design analysis of variance and means were compared by Duncan’s test at the 5% level. The results indicated that the forage quality of Salsola arbuscula was affected by phenological stages. The highest percentage of CP and WSC was estimated in the vegetative stage, CF and NDF at flowering stage and DMD, ash and ME in the seeding stage. Due to the high percentage of CP and WSC, the vegetative stage was determined as the best time for forage utilization of Salsola arbuscula.