Variations in Nutrient Composition During Noaea mucronata’s Active Growth As a Source of Roughage

This study was carried out in order to determine the changes in nutrient content during active growth of thorny saltwort (Noaea mucronata (Forssk.) Asch.& Schweinf.) grown in arid rangelands. In this way, it will be had an idea about whether grazing animals can meet their daily nutritional requirements or not. The research was established in randomized blocks experiment design with three replications on a protected area. Shoot+leaf samples taken from different parts of the plant were collected by imitating the ruminants’ browsing habits on the 15th of each month between April and October 2016. The analysis results showed that the DMR (dry matter ratio), CP (crude protein), NDF (neutral detergent fibre), ADF (acid detergent fibre), ADL (acid detergent lignin), DE (digestible energy), ME (metabolizable energy), DMD (dry matter digestibility), DMI (dry matter intake) and RFV (relative feed value) were different significantly according to months. The DMR, NDF, ADF and ADL have showed an increase from April to June, but CP, DE, ME, DMD, DMI and RFV. The values belong to all the parameters examined were generally stable from June. Consequently, it was determined that nutrient contents of Noaea mucronata can be significantly contribute to the feeding of the animals in the spring periods, but when there was a reduction in the nutrient contents during summer and autumn months, animals should be fed by supplementary feeds with high nutrient and energy content