Evaluation of forage yield and quality of accessions of two rangeland species Elymus hispidus and Agropyron cristatum under irrigation conditions in Khorssan Razavi province

In order to study of forage quantity and quality traits of eleven accessions of two varieties (sub species) of Elymus hispidus var. hispidus and Elymus hispidus var. villosus and six accessions of Agropyron cristatum were carried out in two separate experiments using randomized complete block design with three replications in Khorasan-e-razavi Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center. The seeds of the above accessions were sown in greenhouse conditions at a temperature of 20 ±2 ° C and 5 of them were planted in each plastic pot and after full establishment, the seedlings were transferred to the main soil. In order to, fully establish the seedlings in the main field and ensure the purity of the accessions, the first year of the project was considered as the year of establishment. The results of comparison between the varieties of E. hispidus showed that the villosus variety had higher forage yield, number of spikes and spike length compared to hispidus. In contrast, the percentage of plant establishment was higher in hispidus variety. In terms of forage quality, there are no difference between the E. hispidus accessions. In villosus variety, Chahar-Tagh accession due to high total dry matter (DM) yield (7732 kg ha-1), high dry matter digestibility (DMD) (43.6%), high soluble carbohydrates (8.8%) and consequently low acid detergent fiber (43.7%) was superior to other accession. In species A.cristatum 1727 accession had the lowest height, the lowest forage yield and the highest number of spikes. Among the accessions of A. cristatum, the highest and lowest annual dry matter yield of 12974 and 5692 kg ha-1 per year was achieved in 208 and 1727 accessions, respectively. Accessions 208 originating in Isfahan also had a significant percentage of digestibility and protein. In general, the results of this study showed that the accessions of the villosus variety as well as the 208 accession were superior to other accessions.