| Summary: | Understanding forage quality and the factors that affect its constituents will help improve livestock production bymaking decisions that optimize forage nutritive value and intake. This investigation was conducted in Zagros semi-aridrangeland center, Iran to determine forage quality of several grass and legume species. Samples were collected at earlybloom, from 5 m long and 0.10 m wide strips at a cutting height of 0.05 m. The samples were weighed for dry matter yield andnutritive value measurements. Samples were dried and analyzed in the laboratory by standard methods to determine thefollowing parameters: nitrogen, crude protein (CP), ash, ether extract, neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber(ADF), digestible energy, dry matter digestibility (DMD), metabolizable energy, dry matter intake (DMI) and Relative ForageQuality Index (RFQi). Standard ANOVA procedures were used to analyze the data. Quality of forage species was classifiedbased on RFQi similarity in Mosaic version 3.01 and PC-ORD environment software. There was a positive correlationbetween CP, DMD, DMI and RFQi for all species, and also a negative correlation between ADF, CP and RFQi. The results ofstatistical analysis show that, forage quality of species (Leguminoseae and Gramineae) were significantly different (P<0.05).Species from gramineae showed significantly (P<0.05) higher ADF and NDF than leguminoseae species. At the stage ofsampling, gramineae had lower RFQi than the legume family. The results of study showed the decision to practice grazing ormake hay or how to select the best hay available should be based on forage quality. A forage analysis is therefore importantto evaluate the nutritive value of the forage to be grazed or hay to be purchased or marketed. Knowing what affects foragequality will also help in making appropriate selection of forages and supplements that will match livestock requirements andresult in economically optimum livestock performance.
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