Abstract
Palatability includes plants physical and chemical property that encourages an animal select
a plant for grazing. This study is an attempt for intruducing an indicator for determining the
palatability of rangeland plants. To do this, the relationship between palatability and forage
quality of rangeland plants in Karsanak rangelands of the Chaharmahal-va-Bakhtiari province
was studied. First, plant composition based on plant canopy cover and production was
determined using of the systematic random sampling method (in each plant type there are
2 transects of 200 m and 15 plots along each transect). Also, the percentage of present each
plant in the livestock diet (sheep and goat) was determined using the filming method. Then,
the selection index of each plant species by sheep and goat was determined. In the next stage,
the forage quality of some plant species was determined by determining the percentage of
CP, ADF, DMD and ME. Finally, the relationship between plant quality indices (independent
variables) and the selection index of plant species by sheep and goats (dependent variable)
was determined using the SPSS software (Ver.15). Results showed that there is a significant
relationship between the selection index of each species (both percentage canopy cover and
production) and ADF, DMD, and ME by the sheep (P ≤0.05). However, such a significant
relationship was not found for CP. And, there is not a significant relationship between the
selection index of each species (both percentage canopy cover and production) and ADF,
DMD, ME and CP by the goat (P ≤0.05). Considering the results, the quality of forage can be an indicator in determining their palatability.
Keywords
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