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