An investigation on forage quality of two Legumes (Coro nilla varia and Medicago stiva) in Golestan National Park

Improvement of the traits related to forage quality including Neutral Detergent Fiber(NDF), Acid Detergent Fiber (ADF), and CP in forage species has a significant impact in increasing livestock production. In breeding programs that the number of samples is occasionally high, the use of chemical methods is time-consuming and costly. For this reason, NIR technology has been introduced as a rapid and accurate method in estimating chemical composition of agricultural products. This research was aimed to investigate the possibility of using this technology in estimation of NDF, ADF, and CP in Coronilla varia. A total of 45 samples of each species were selected during different phenological growth stages and from different vegetation types. CP was measured by Kjeldahl method and Coronilla varia method was applied to measure NDF and ADF. For NIR calibration, samples were divided into two categories, A part was considered for calibration and the rest for evaluating the accuracy of NIR in estimating the samples. All samples were irradiated by NIR wavelengths and the best regression equation was fitted between the chemical method and NIR based on statistical methods. According to the results, it could be concluded that NIR can be used as a rapid, accurate, and reliable method with enough potential to assess the quality traits in breeding programs

Keywords:

Coronilla varia , Neutral Detergent Fiber (NDF) , Acid Detergent Fiber (ADF) , Crude Protein (CP) , Near Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy (NIRS)