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Abstract
A field observation trial was carried out at Agricultural Research Center, Rumais, Sultanate of Oman to evaluate the productivity and forage quality of two species of Saltbush viz. Quali saltbush (Artiplex lentiformis L.) And Fourwing saltbush (Atriplex canescens L), both are perennial and of North American origin. Plants were irrigated with brackish water (EC more than 10.00 dS/m) under drip irrigation and grown with minimum tillage and sub-optimum management conditions. Biomass production was evaluated in terms of five characters i.e. plant height, plant width, plant volume, green fodder yield/plant and green fodder yield/ha over the experimental period (747 d). Arriplex lenformis produced a total green fodder yield of 53.29 kg/plant equivalent to 59.21 t/ha as compared to that of 31.27 kg/plant (34.75 t/ha) produced by Atriplex canescens. The cut yields and interaction effects (between the species and cuts) were also significantly different with respect to all the characters. Chemical composition of the Atriplex species indicated that A Ientiformis had higher levels of Na, K, Cl and Ca as compared to A canescens. The studies of nutrient composition of bulk samples of the Atriplex species revealed that the fresh material contained 34.30% dry matter. On dry matter basis, the Atriplex material had 9.40% crude protein (CP), 24.00% crude fiber (CF), l.5% extract ( EE), 19.60% ash and 45.50% nitrogen free extract (NFE). Despite its high ash content, Atriplex material appeared to be a nutritious and cheap source of nitrogen complementation.