محمد اسدی کرم

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa willd.) is an annual plant considered as pseudocereals and belongs to the family Chenopodiaceae. Quinoa has excellent properties as low water requirement for growth, resistant to drought and salinity and nutritional good quality, which are the reason for the great interest. With increasing import of Quinoa seeds to IRAN, its planting is under development and soon will be produced a large amount of Quinoa crop residues. There is very limit information about nutritive value and digestibility of Quinoa crop residues. The objective of this study was to determine nutritive value and digestibility in two genotypes of Quinoa crop residues.

Complete Quinoa plant from two genotypes of Sjama and Sjama Iranshahr were harvested from an experimental farm. The plants were dried in the shade and then the seeds were separated. The sample of two genotypes of Quinoa crop residues were used for determine of chemical composition, fermentation, ruminal degradability, ruminal and post-ruminal dry matter (DM) disappearance.

There is no different in concentration of chemical composition including crude protein (CP), ether extract, non fiber carbohydrate, crude ash, neutral detergent fiber and acid detergent fiber between two genotypes of Quinoa crop residues. The averages of these chemical compositions in two genotypes of Quinoa were 13.11, 1.68, 22.74, 13.68, 48.80 and 32.69 % respectively. The gas production after 24h, potential of gas production (b), rate of gas production (c), metabolisable energy and short chain fatty acid were not different across two genotypes of Quinoa and were similar to values in alfalfa hay. The amounts of ruminal DM disappearance (51.60 vs. 57.76 %) and total tract DM disappearance (54.80 vs. 60.57 %) were lower (p<0.01) for Sjama genotype than Sjama Iranshahr genotype, while the post-ruminal DM disappearance was similar in both genotypes. Furthermore, rapidly degradable DM fraction (a), slowly degradable DM fraction (b) and rate constant of degradation of the b fraction (c) were lower (p<0.05) for Sjama genotype than Sjama Iranshahr genotype.

The concentration of CP in two genotypes of Quinoa crop residues were determined about 13%, which is higher than cereal straw and other residues of agriculture crops. On the other hand, coefficients of DM degradability were suitable and the values of total tract DM disappearance were about 55-60%. In general, these findings indicated that Quinoa crop residues can be used as a new feedstuff that provide nutritive requirement of ruminants.

The concentration of CP in two genotypes of Quinoa crop residues were determined about 13%, which is higher than cereal straw and other residues of agriculture crops. On the other hand, coefficients of DM degradability were suitable and the values of total tract DM disappearance were about 55-60%. In general, these findings indicated that Quinoa crop residues can be used as a new feedstuff that provide nutritive requirement of ruminants.