RT - Journal Article T1 - Determination of the Nutritive Value of Three Species of Annual Alfalfa Using in Vitro , in Vivo and Palatability Methods JF - JCPP YR - 2007 JO - JCPP VO - 11 IS - 41 UR - http://jcpp.iut.ac.ir/article-1-754-en.html SP - 393 EP - 404 K1 - Nutritive value K1 - Annual medics K1 - Chemical composition K1 - Digestibility K1 - Degradability K1 - Palatability. AB - The nutritive value of the annual alfalfa (Medicago rigidulla, Medicago polymorpha and Medicago scutellata) species harvested at flowering stage was assessed by chemical composition, in vitro dry matter and nitrogen digestibility, in sacco dry matter and nitrogen degradation (0, 8, 12, 24, 48 and 72 h) and palatability (short-term intake rate, STIR) methods. Mean values of the chemical analysis results (%) for M. rigidulla, M. polymorpha and M. scutellata respectively were as follows: OM 85.1, 86.1 and 86.9 CP 25.1, 23.8 and 15.6 NDF 23.2, 24.8 and 30.0 ADF 18.3, 19.9 and 24.0 ADIN 0.36, 0.11 and 0.22 calcium 1.4, 1.3 and 1.2 phosphorus 0.23, 0.28 and 0.24 potassium 1.5, 1.5 and 1.4. The digestibilities of the DM and OM for M. rigidulla were 0.82 and 0.79 M. polymorpha 0.83.5 and 0.80 M. scutellata 0.75 and 0.69, respectively. The degradabilities of DM and CP at outflow rate of 0.05 for M. rigidulla were 0.72 and 0.55 M. polymorpha 0.71 and 0.57 M. scutellata 0.63 and 0.58, respectively. Finally, the palatabilities (using short-term intake rate method) for M. rigidulla, M. polymorpha and M. scutellata species were 13.6, 12.8 and 11.3 (g DM/min) respectively. According to the methods used, the descending ranking order (high to low) of these species on the basis of their nutritional value was M.rigidulla, M.polymorpha and M.scutellata. LA eng UL http://jcpp.iut.ac.ir/article-1-754-en.html M3 ER -