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

Astragalus fridae Rech. F. 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 A. fridae forage quality seems necessary. For this purpose, forage samples of A. fridae 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<5%) between phenological stages for all of traits. The lowest values of DMD, CP, WSC, Ash and ME were obtained at the vegetative stage, but there were no significant differences between three other phenological stages. The highest values of latter traits were obtained in seed setting stage and could be attributed to higher nutritional values of seeds. The means of ADF, NDF and CF were increased by the development of plant growth. But their increases did not have significant effects on reducing forage quality. DMD, CP, WSC, Ash and ME had a positive and significant correlation with each other and all of them were negatively correlated with ADF, NDF and CF.