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218562

Nutritive value of the common grazing plants and their potential asforage resources in the Saudi Arabia eastern

Article

Last updated: 04 Jan 2025

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Abstract

Most of the rangelands in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are located in marginal ecosystems with low rainfall and high aridity index. Under these conditions, highly drought and salinity resistance perennial rangeland plant species play an important role in the sustainable livestock production which is highly depending on the nutritive value of the available forage. This study was conducted to evaluate the nutritive value of the common rangeland plants and to assess their potential utilization as livestock feed in the eastern region of Saudi Arabia. Twenty-two Rangel and plants (grasses, forb sand shrubs) were surveyed and collected from the study area. Proximate analysis of the common rangelands plants naturally growing on the study area indicated that rangeland plants contained 15.1 – 49.6 % of their fresh weight as dry matter. (DM) Ash, crude protein, crude fiber, organic matter, ether extract contents on dry matter basis in these plants ranged from 7.9 to 43.8, 5.4 to 15.4, 5.1 to 38.5, 3.4 to 7.9 %, and 56.2 to 94.5%, respectively. The neutral detergent fibers (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF) and Lignin contents (DM %) of the examined plants in this study were ranged from 16.3 to 70.4, 10.2 to 44.3, and 2.7 to 10.9%, respectively. Those plants also contained 0.058 to 1.341, 0.153 to 1.384, 0.92 to 10.283 and 0 to 4.2% tannis, nitrates, saponins and oxalates, respectively. Digestion coefficients for DM, ash, OM, crude protein (CP) and ADF% ranged from 22.7 to 75.7, 2.9 to 82.9, 18.4 to 88.1, 26.7 to 76.4, and 11.9 to 51.4 % in that order. In general, the obtained results indicated that most of the evaluated rangeland plants have good nutritive value and represent major livestock forage resources, and they might be cultivated using brackish and saline waters. Also, they are valuable plant resources for cultivation using seawater or a mixture of seawater and fresh water.

DOI

10.21608/ajar.2021.218562

Keywords

Grazing plants, halophytes, Crude fiber, lignin, crude protein, Saudi Arabia

Authors

First Name

M. I.

Last Name

Alzarah

MiddleName

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Affiliation

Department of Environmental and Nature Resources, College of Agricultural and Food Sciences, King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia.

Email

malzarah@kfu.edu.sa

City

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Orcid

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Volume

46

Article Issue

1

Related Issue

31069

Issue Date

2021-06-01

Receive Date

2021-01-09

Publish Date

2021-06-01

Page Start

101

Page End

115

Print ISSN

1110-1563

Online ISSN

2786-0051

Link

https://ajar.journals.ekb.eg/article_218562.html

Detail API

https://ajar.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=218562

Order

9

Type

Original Article

Type Code

929

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Al-Azhar Journal of Agricultural Research

Publication Link

https://ajar.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Nutritive value of the common grazing plants and their potential asforage resources in the Saudi Arabia eastern

Details

Type

Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023