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Acta Prataculturae Sinica ›› 2021, Vol. 30 ›› Issue (9): 51-61.DOI: 10.11686/cyxb2020330

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Effect of short-term fencing on the forage quality of plant communities in degraded grassland in Northwestern Liaoning

Jing-dong ZHAO(), Wuyunna, Yan-tao SONG()   

  1. College of Environment and Resources,Dalian Minzu University,Dalian 116600,China
  • Received:2020-07-14 Revised:2020-11-23 Online:2021-08-30 Published:2021-08-30
  • Contact: Yan-tao SONG

Abstract:

The impact of fencing on the forage quality of degraded grassland is an important aspect of evaluation of fencing effectiveness. This research studied the changes in community characteristics and forage quality indicators from 2017 to 2019 under fencing and free grazing treatments in degraded grassland in northwestern Liaoning Province. It was found that plant community height, vegetation cover, aboveground biomass, plant litter and the levels of crude protein (CP), non-fibrous carbohydrate (NFC), net energy for lactation, milk perton index (MT) in the fencing treatment were significantly higher than corresponding values for the grazing treatment (P<0.05), thus it was deduced the forage in the fencing treatment had higher nutrient content and feeding value. The forage crude ash, ether extract, lignin, acid detergent fiber, in vitro dry matter digestibility, neutral detergent fiber digestibility, digestible neutral detergent fiber, and elemental calcium, magnesium and phosphorus contents in the grazing treatment were all significantly higher than those in the fencing treatment (P<0.01), so the forage in the grazing treatment had high digestibility and was rich in mineral elements, but had poor palatability. In 2019, the levels of CP, NFC, elemental potassium, net energy for maintenance and total digestible nutrients in forage were significantly higher than those in the first year of fencing (2017) (P<0.05), and the neutral detergent fiber concentration was the lowest among the three years (P<0.05). Hence, the results show that the indexes describing community characteristics and forage quality of degraded grassland were improved after three years fencing. These results provide theoretical reference data for short-term fencing of degraded grassland and show the importance of fencing for grassland management and utilization.

Key words: degraded grassland, grazing, short-term fencing, forage quality