Forage Quality of Endangered Species of Astragalus fridae Rech. F. in Semnan Province, Iran

Abstract

<em>Astragalus fridae </em>Rech. F<em>.</em> is a native and endemic species in Iran. Considering the circumstances of this species in the country and the world and the importance of conservation of genetic resources, the awareness of<em> A. fridae</em> forage quality seems necessary. For this purpose, forage samples of <em>A. fridae</em> were taken at four phenological stages including vegetative growth, flowering, seed setting and maturity over three years (2012- 2014) in Semnan province, Iran. Forage quality factors such as DMD, CP, WSC, ADF, Ash, CF, NDF and ME were measured by NIR. Their overall means over phenological stages were 67.38%, 7.58%, 17.43%, 27.79%, 5.89%, 39.87%, 47.47% and 9.46mj/kg, respectively. Result of analysis of variance showed significant differences (P