الملخص الإنجليزي
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 (Atriplex lentiformis L.) And Fourwing saltbush (Atriplex canescens L.), both arc perennial and of North American origin. Plants were irigated with brackish water (EC>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.c plant height, plant width, plant volume, green fodder yield/plant and green fodder yield/ha over the experimental period (747 d). Atriplex lenformis produced a total green fodder yield of 53.29 kg/plant equivalent to 59.21 tha 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 als0 significantly different with respect to all the characters Chemical composition of the Atriplex species indicated that A. lentiformis 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), 1.5% 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.
