English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Zendy Plus

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Zendy Tools

Zendy Open

Nutrient and fiber content and in vitro digestible dry matter (IVDDM) were measured in Gambel oak (Quercus gambellii) and big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) samples collected during January from nine geographic areas distributed widely throughout the western half of Colorado, and representing three vegetation types. Coefficients of variation among areas were less than 10% in both species in dry matter content, IVDDM and most cell and cell wall components. Variation appears to be small enough to permit application of a suitably selected, constant value, which would reflect winter nutrient content, fiber content or digestibility of these species, regardless of where collected in Colorado, in surveys where winter nutritional status of big game rangelands is being estimated for management purposes. Management of big game range should include knowledge of the nutrient and fiber content and digestibility of existing forage plants during the critical winter period. Forage species which comprise winter big game diets must be high enough in digestibility and nutrient content to meet minimum animal requirements. The current state of the art for evaluating nutritional status of winter rangelands involves chemical analysis of each forage species or of diet mixes to determine percent digestibility, fiber composition, and nutrient content. Each analysis is time consuming and expensive. If a number of winter ranges were being evaluated simultaneously, the time and cost of a detailed analysis of each plant species on each range would be exorbitant. Costs of evaluating a number of ranges could be reduced if variation among plants of the same species was small enough to permit application of suitably selected constants to be used to reflect winter nutrient content, fiber content, and digestibility of a species regardless of where collected. This would render it unnecessary to sample nutrient fiber or digestibility levels of individual species on each rangeland area of interest. In some cases it may be adequate merely to determine that the composite nutrient level for a piece of rangeland is above some minimum value rather than to measure actual composite nutrient levels. Nutrient content levels in plants are influenced by numerous factors, including season of year, climate, weather, elevation, and light and soil constituents such as parent material, texture, depth, nutrient content, moisture, and temperature (Laycock and Price 1970). Cook and Harris (1950) concluded that “the nutrient content of forage is influenced by many interdependent factors and the result is the additive or mass effect of all factors operating simulAuthors are, respectively, wildlife researcher and wildlife technician, Colorado Division of Wildlife, 317 West Prospect Street, Fort Collins, Colorado 80526, and associate professor of statistics, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, 80523. This study was financed in part by Federal Aid in Fish and Wildlife Restoration, Colorado Project W-126-R. The authors gratefully acknowledge Dan Milchunas and Dan Raker for their assistance in conducting in vitro digestibility trials. Manuscript received September 21, 1979. JOURNAL OF RANGE MANAGEMENT 34(2), March 1981 taneously.” Therefore, use of a constant value for each species will provide an adequate approximation of the overall nutrient content, fiber content, or digestibility only if variation due to all factors is reasonably small. The purpose of this study was to determine extent of variation in nutrient content and digestibility of individual range forage species growing under widely diversified conditions and in different geographic locations. Two species, Gambel oak (Quercus gambellii) and big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata), were selected for study. Due to difficulty in identifying sagebrush plants according to subspecies in the field most big game winter range surveys conducted to collect management data would measure forage production only to the species level. Therefore, big sagebrush collections in this study included all subspecies of A. tridentata in an effort to determine the degree of variation nutrient, fiber, and digestibility within the species as it occurs within Colorado.

journal of range management

Winter Variation in Nutrient and Fiber Content and in vitro Digestibility of Gambel Oak [Quercus gambellii] and Big Sagebrush [Artemisia tridentata] from Diversified Sites in Colorado