The estimation of maintenance metabolizable energy and daily requirements of small wild ruminants grazing in Lar National Park

Knowledge of the daily nutrient requirements of grazing animals in rangelands of different climates is essential to calculate grazing capacity in rangeland plans. In this regard, the daily metabolizable energy requirement at the maintenance level for small wild ruminants grazing in Lar National Park rangelands were studied. For this purpose, according to the average values of forage quality indexes of rangeland species and their contribution to rangeland vegetable composition, the among of metabolizable energy was estimated in kg of dry forage rangelands and considering the daily metabolizable energy requirement of small wild ruminants, the amount of feed provided for the daily requirement of livestock was calculated to calculate the separate grazing capacity of these animals in the rangelands of the region. Using the animal unit weight of small wild ruminants, the required daily maintenance metabolizable energy for grazing animals were determined using equation method of MAFF and NRC standard in the studied rangelands. Forage species of grazing animals were identified and collected at flowering stage in the studied rangelands. Results also showed mean of percentage 12.42±0.17, 37.59±0.28, 57.81±0.28 and 7.89±0.07 were respectively for CP, ADF, DMD and ME (MJ) per kg dry forage was estimated. Also Daily metabolizable energy was calculated for grazing wild ruminants such as: male goat, female goat, ram and ewe. The results also showed daily metabolizable energy were 16.32±1.25, 14.07±1.36, 13.67±1.15 and 11.58±1.21 MJ/day and for daily requirement 2.06±0.25, 1.78±0.12, 1.71±0.17 and 1.46±0.25, respectively for male goat, female goat, ram and ewe.  Using the results of this study, we can determine the new and separate grazing capacity for wild ruminants in the study areas. The results also showed that because of the cost of determining the quality of forage, these results can be used to estimate the daily requirement of these livestock in different years.