Investigating the performance of quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa willd.) forage and determining its digestibility in dried and ensiled form

Authors

1 Animal Nutrition and Physiology Research Department, Animal Science Research Institute of Iran, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Karaj, Iran

2 Animal Nutrition and Physiology Research Department, Animal Science Research Institute of Iran, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Karaj, Iran.

3 Veterinary student of Islamic Azad University, Karaj Branch

Abstract

Investigating the performance of quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa willd.) forage and determining its digestibility in dried and ensiled form
ABSTRACT
Background and Objectives: Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa willd.) is a dual-purpose crop for grain and forage production. Quinoa has excellent properties such as low water requirement for growth, resistance to drought, salinity and nutritional good quality, which are the reason for the great interest in Iran. The objective of this study was to investigate the performance of quinoa forage and determine its digestibility in dried and ensiled forms.
Material and methods: Three genotypes of quinoa forage (Sejama, Titicaca and Q12) were used in a completely randomized design in dry in the shade and silage forms. All genotypes were sown at the same time and harvested at the time dough of seeds and then were calculated performance of quinoa forage. The harvested forages were chopped and one part was dried in the shade and the other part was ensiled during 60 days in experimental silos. The silages were appearance characteristics evaluated after opening the silos. The samples were ground to pass a 1-mm screen, and then were used for evaluation of rumen degradability and rumen disappearance of dry matter (via incubating the samples inside the bag (pores 50 micrometers) in the rumen of steers) and post-ruminal disappearance of dry matter (via incubating the samples inside the bag in the DAISYII incubator). The samples were incubated in the rumen using polyester bags. All variables were statistically analyzed in a completely randomized design by the Statistical Analysis Systems (SAS).
Results: The results show that, the duration of sowing to the dough stage of seeds was 60 days in Kerman condition, and wet plant yield for Sejama, Titicaca and Q12 genotypes were 34500, 30400 and 36610 kg/ha respectively. The appearance characteristics of silages were in an acceptable condition and were scored 16.75, 17.50 and 18.13 for Sejama, Titicaca and Q12 genotypes respectively in a 0 to 20 scoring system (P<0.01). The average of ruminal and gastro intestinal tract DM disappearance varied between 64.64 to 69.86 % and 69.64 to 75.19 % respectively (P<0.01). Furthermore, rapidly degradable DM fraction (a), in dried forage was lower (39.65 vs. 45.23 %) than in ensiled forage, and slowly degradable DM fraction (b) and rate constant of degradation of the b fraction (c) in dried forage was higher (41.46 vs. 36.39 % and 0.079 vs. 0.063 per hour respectively) than ensiled forage (P<0.01).
Conclusion: In general, the results have shown that quinoa forage had an acceptable digestibility and can be used as a substitution feedstuff with low water requirement in ruminant nutrition.

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Journal of Ruminant Research
Volume 12, Issue 1
April 2024
Pages 51-68

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