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The nutritive value of native forage plants of Armenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2017

B. Kh. Mezhunts
Affiliation:
Centre for Ecological-Noosphere Studies, National Academy of Sciences, Abovian. 68, Yerevan 375025, Armenia
E. R. Deaville
Affiliation:
ADAS Nutritional Sciences Research Unit, Alcester Road, Stratford-on-Avon, CV37 9RQ, UK
D. I. Givens
Affiliation:
ADAS Nutritional Sciences Research Unit, Alcester Road, Stratford-on-Avon, CV37 9RQ, UK
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Extract

Armenia is a typical highland country with an average altitude of 1800 m. More than half of its territory is occupied by natural pastures and hay producing areas which form an important source of feed material for animal husbandry. However, in recent years the country has been experiencing an acute shortage of feed materials and as a result the total number of livestock and animal derived products has drastically dropped. During the transition to a market economy the government has been unable to import additional forage materials, therefore there is a need to utilise local resources more rationally. Limited studies of the nutritive value of Armenia’s forage plants has been carried out. Moreover, in previous studies the fundamental criteria for measuring forage quality has been largely limited to an assessment of crude protein (CP), total ash (TA), crude fat (CF), nitrogen-free extractable substances (NFS) and crude cellulose (CC) contents. Only recently have studies been undertaken to assess gross energy (GE) and in-vitro digestible organic matter (OM) in the dry matter (DOMD) contents, and OM digestibility (OMD) and digestible energy (DE) value of OM. The objective of this work was to summarize the published studies on chemical composition and to discuss the results of recent measurements of energy value and in-vitro digestibility of native forages in Armenia in order to facilitate the selection and utilisation of high quality forages by farmers.

Type
Poster Presentations
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Science 2001

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References

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