COMPARATIVE STUDY ON MACROMINERAL STATUS IN LEGUMES AND GRASSES IN RELATION TO LIVESTOCK ALLOWANCE DURING DRY AND RAINY SEASONS IN PUNJAB, PAKISTAN

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1 Legume Res., 37 (2) : , 214 DOI: /j AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATION CENTRE COMPARATIVE STUDY ON MACROMINERAL STATUS IN LEGUMES AND GRASSES IN RELATION TO LIVESTOCK ALLOWANCE DURING DRY AND RAINY SEASONS IN PUNJAB, PAKISTAN Zafar Iqbal Khan*, Kafeel Ahmad, Syed Hammad Raza 1, Zahara Bibi, Irfan Mustafa 1 and Syed Ali Hassan Naqvi 1 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Sargodha, Sargodha, Pakistan. Received: Accepted: ABSTRACT The status of ruminants feed resources available to ruminants in central Punjab at Rural Farm, Sargodha comprising legumes and, grasses has been assessed based on rainy and dry season. Data on the composition of both types of forages revealed that legumes, contained Ca.12 and.14%, Mg.15 and.17%, K.76 and 1.3% and Na.11 and.15% during rainy and dry seasons, respectively. While grasses had Ca.21 and.14%, Mg.19 and.12%, K 1.19 and 1.32% and Na.7 and.2% during rainy and dry seasons, respectively. Both legume and grass forages contained all macro minerals far below the critical levels required for ruminants at both seasons. These minerals were severely deficient to fulfill the need of the minerals for rearing livestock and potential threats of their deficiencies for farm animals may be anticipated. Supplementing the deficient macrominerals with locally available feed resources like green fodders, mineral mixtures, and cakes and brans (which are good sources of minerals), or providing region specific mineral supplements would alleviate the deficiency of the macrominerals at this livestock farm. Key words: Dry season, Livestock, Legumes and grasses, Macrominerals, Raining season. INTRODUCTION Pastoral industry in Pakistan has to thrive on native pastures which are believed to be low in nutritive value. Low nutritive value causes slow growth rate and low productivity performances. Fluctuation in nutrient content of the pasture results in the familiar pattern of growth rate of animal on native forages, i.e., rapid growth in rainy season then followed by a loss of body weight in the dry season (McDowell and Arthington, 25). Mineral deficiencies in soils of Pakistan are common and these deficiencies result in poor animal performance either directly or through depression of diet intake. In grasslands and rangelands areas of Pakistan, efforts are being made to improve the pastoral industry in order to bring about a sufficient supply of diet for the increasing human population (Ahmad et al., 28; Khan et al., 21). All minerals have very deleterious effects on ruminants health and productivity if taken in the diets (Khan et al, 21). Improvement of animal nutrition in these arid areas has been conducted through the cultivation of improved varieties of forages and by the direct supplementation to the ruminants with a specific tailored mixture to enhance the productivity. The potential incidence and severity of deficiency problems is much greater in different areas of the world and mineral elements more likely to be deficient are Na, Mg, P, and Cu (Little, 1982; Morillo et al., 1997; Khan et al., 29). Except in isolated cases, little is known about the extent to which mineral deficiencies limit animal production in different countries of the world. During the rainy season, when the protein and energy contents of forages are at least adequate to sustain weight gain of the animals, mineral deficiencies may be the major factors which determines rate of animal production (Khan et al, 21; McDowell and Arthington, 25). It is well known that mineral status of soil is very variable in the arid areas of the world and consequently, the mineral levels of the forage * Corresponding author s zikhan11@gmail.com;bioscience11@hotmail.com 1 Department of Botany,G.C.University,Faisalabad,Pakistan

2 28 LEGUME RESEARCH- An International Journal plants in the pasture could be obviously varied in these areas (McDowell, 1985; Underwood, 1981). In the arid areas of the world, the feeding of livestock mostly depends on the native forages and some crop residues and animals are not supplemented with tailored mineral mixtures for economic reason. Thus grazed animals under these conditions may be exposed to the danger of deficiency (Fujihara et al., 1994; McDowell, 1985; Fardous et al., 21).Deficiencies may result from low concentrations of elements in the soil and forage plants, and as with macro elements, trace elements are more likely to occur in grazing ruminants, depending on unfertilized pasture and locally grown supplements for all feed requirements. Alternatively, deficiencies and toxicities may be induced by interactions between trace elements and other nutrients (Underwood and Suttle, 1999; Masters et al., 1993). Thus there is, however, little available information about mineral nutrition of cattle in dry arid area, in particular, in Pakistan. In this study, the nutritional status of some macro and micro minerals of cattle in the arid area of central Punjab, Pakistan are described using the results on mineral level in main forages and blood plasma of animals (Khan et al., 21; Khan, 23). Most studies on mineral conducted in the past in areas structurally different from this site of investigation. Information on these aspects as well as the effect of sampling periods on the mineral levels of forages and cattle are very important to identify what measures should be done to improve the nutritional status of the livestock. The objectives of the study were to investigate the fluctuation of mineral content of legumes and grasses in the pastures as well as to know the mineral status and requirement of mineral supplementation to animals for enhancing the mineral levels as required for their growth and reproduction to maximize the potential of farm animals. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study was conducted at the Rural Animal Farm, district Sargodha, of the Central,Punjab, Pakistan, which is located and situated at latitude 32.8 N and 3.7 E longitude and 187 m above sea level. The annual rainfall measured during the study year was 12 mm and maximum temperature was recorded 48 o C. The mean temperature is 28 o C and rainfall occurs from June to August with a marked dry season from late November through late February. Soils are loamy and clay with open pastures comprises mostly sown varieties of forages such as mostly grasses and legumes are predominant. Some commercial mineral supplement mixed with salt, is fed to animal round the year at the farm. Changes in chemical composition of pasture reflected the changes in rainfall, temperature and effects of soil characteristics. In relation to these parameters, two periods could be classified: rainy season from June to August, and dry season from December to February. The corresponding rainfall ranged from 18-2 mm these seasons during the study year. The effect of rainy and dry season on the pasture land is often very pronounced every where. The forage samples ( Five replicates of each forage species were taken comprising both legumes and grasses during this study which were mostly grazed by the animals, were grouped according to species of legumes and grasses and fore mentioned into seasons. Based on monthly samples was attempted to evaluate the effect of sampling periods on mineral contents of different forages. Forage samples were washed with 1% HCl followed by four washes with distilled water to remove dust particles. These samples were then oven dried at 7 o C and ground to powder, stored in clean, dry brown paper bags for further analysis. About.5 g of dried crushed material was digested with 5 ml of 96% H 2 SO 4 and 3 ml of 3% H O according to methods of Wolf 2 2 (1982). The temperature of digestion was 27 o C. After cooling, the digested sample was diluted to 1 ml with deionised water and after filtration the macro and micro minerals were determined using flame photometer and atomi c absorpti on spectrophotometer, respectively. Statistical significance between the mean was tested at.5,.1 and.1 level of probability using the software SPSS. (SPSS Inc.1999) RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Nutritive value of the pastures: The chemical composition of the legumes and grass forages are shown in Table 1. Figures A-D illustrated the fluctuation of values during the sampling periods.

3 Vol. 37, No.2, TABLE 1: Macro mineral contents (%,Mean± Se) of different forages as affected by rainy and dry seasons at Rural Livestock Experimental Station, Sargodha. Plant Season Minerals Ca Mg K Na Legumes Rainy.18±.5.22±.6.89±.3.7±.2 Dry.11±.4.13±.5 1.3±.5.2±.3 Grasses Rainy.26±.3.24± ±.4.6±.1 Dry.1±.1.15± ±.4.13±.2 Calcium: In the rainy season, the mean Ca content of the grass pastures was.21% in the rainy season, which decreased to 14% in the dry season. The Ca content of legume pastures was.12 and.14% in the rainy and dry season, respectively. Whereas in both pastures the Ca contents were similar during dry season. The Ca content varied from.14 to.16% in legumes and.11 to.24% in grasses at different sampling periods during either season with inconsistent mode of increase or decrease during this study. Calcium content in both pastures were above the recommended levels (NRC, 1996; NRC, 1984) only during the rainy season but were far below during the dry season. Calcium deficiencies is rare in grazing ruminants in lactating conditions or those on acid or sandy soils in some parts of the world (Underwood, 1981).The requirement of calcium equals the phosphorus level, to obtain a calcium-phosphorus ratio of 1:1.Low calcium contents have already been reported in many grasses by different researchers (Sultan et al., 28; Khan et al., 29). Magnesium: Mg content in the rainy season in both legumes and grass pastures were different; the levels were.15 and.18% for the legumes pasture and the grass pastures, respectively. In both pastures Mg content increased in the dry season to.17 in legumes but decreased to.12% for the grass pastures. In both pasture Mg levels were lower during the dry season. The Mg level ranged from.11 to.19% in legumes and.1 to.2% in grass pasture during different sampling times in both seasons with inconsistent decrease or increase during this research. Similar minor changes have already been observed in forage Mg levels by various workers (Khan et al., 28; Khan et al., 29; Sultan et al., 28). In both legumes and grass pastures, Mg contents were adequate for cattle only during rainy season as recommended by NRC (1996), while during the dry season these were at severe deficient levels indicating the need for Mg supplementation to prevent from grass tetany in cattle. Low level of forage Mg impose deficiencies in livestock, particularly in those cases when forage plants having high K concentrations (Velasquez-Pereira et al., 1996). It has been reported that in case of hypomagesemia in ruminants, the antagonistic interactions of Ca,Mg,and K are the main factors and has an important role in this concern (Vogel et al., 1993; Fardous et al., 21). Potassium: In the legume pasture K content increased in the rainy season and vice versa in grass pasture. There was prominent seasonal effect in legumes mineral content unlike the grasses. The mean K was.76% in legumes in the rainy season and 1.3% in grasses during the dry season without seasonal effect in the later. The K levels in grasses were 1.19% and 1.32%, during rainy and dry seasons, respectively. K content ranged from.71 to 1.19% for legume and.95% to 1.4% for grass pasture across all sampling season /periods and at all sampling time its concentrations were adequate for grazing livestock as recommended by NRC (1996). Potassium content of forages has already been reported to decrease during the dry season as found in our research, particularly in legumes while there were no differences in its content of grasses during both the seasons (Fardous et al., 21; Khan et al., 21). Sodium: According to NRC (1996) the requirement of sodium for ruminants is.6% of diet dry matter. The content of sodium and potassium in the ration is equally important in determining the adequacy of the minerals. To meet the need of highly productive animals, forage should contain more than.15% sodium (CMN, 1973). In the rainy season, the average Na content of the legumes pasture was.11% and the grass pasture had.7% during rainy season which were much different to that of legume pasture. However, Na content in the dry

4 21 LEGUME RESEARCH- An International Journal.3 Le gum e s.25 Legume s.25 Gras ses.2 Grasse s C a c o nce n tra ti on ( % d M g c o n c en tratio n (% d A B Legum es Gr ass es K c o ncen tratio n (% d Legum es Grass es Na co ncen tr atio n (% d C D FIG. 1: Fluctuations in levels of (A) Calcium, (B) Magnesium, (C) Potassium, and (D) Sodium in legumes and grass forages. season was similar between the legume (.2%) and the grass pasture (.2) showing no evident pasture effect. The Na content varied from.9 to.18% in legume pasture and from.6 to.16% in grass pasture during different sampling periods and all values at no time could meet the recommended allowance by NRC (1984) and Khan et al. (24) and were severely deficient reflecting the dire need of sodium supplementation and to complement the Na content of both legumes and grasses in this animal farm. Similar low level of pasture Na has already been reported by Khan et al while on a similar animal ranch in Punjab, Pakistan. Dietary sodium has a marked effect on voluntary intake and, consequently, the rate of gain (Morris and Murphy, 1972; Khan et al., 27; Fardous et al., 21). Aines and Smith (1957) also reported an increase in feed intake, milk production and body weight of dairy cows when fed a diet supplemented with 6g sodium chloride per day. REFERENCES Ahmad, K., Ashraf M., Khan Z.I. and Valeem E.E. (28). Evaluation of macro-mineral concentrations of forages in relation to ruminants requirements: A case study in Soone valley, Punjab, Pakistan. Pakistan Journal of Botany. 4: Aines, P.D., and Smit, S.E. (1957). Sodium versus chloride for the therapy of salt deficient dairy cows. J. Dairy. Sci. 4:682.

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