@article {51165, title = {Preliminary results from reseeding degraded Dera Ghazi Khan rangeland to improve small ruminant production in Pakistan}, journal = {Small Ruminants Research}, volume = {32}, number = {1}, year = {1999}, month = {March 1, 1999}, pages = {43-49}, abstract = {

Thatta Leghari rangeland in the Dera Ghazi Khan district of Pakistan covers an area of 1004\ ha. Its topography is undulating, soil is calcareous and low in organic matter and supports a native standing crop of mainly unpalatable herbaceous vegetation. Due to uncontrolled grazing the range has degraded from its productive potential. Between 1992 and 1993 the native range (1004\ ha) was not grazed. Then in 1992 and 1993, a 600\ ha area was reseeded with two introduced grasses, Gorkha (Lasiurus sindicus) and Buffel grass (Cenchrus ciliaris). Forage production on both the reseeded and native range was measured in 1992 and 1993 at the end of the growing season during October. Weather during these 2 years reflected the long term mean conditions with respect to temperature and distribution of precipitation. The reseeded area produced 10 times (4000\ kg/ha) more forage than the native range (425\ kg/ha) in 1992 and more than twice the forage (1250\ kg/ha vs 534\ kg/ha) in 1993, a year with 37\ mm less total rainfall. Proximate analysis of the forage harvested in 1993 was determined for both treatments. Buffel grass was higher in crude protein (7.8\%) than Gorkha (6.2\%) and chimber (5.9\%; Eleusine flagellifera) a native grass. The native shrub, lana (Salsola foetida) had a higher energy value, 2.7\ Mcal/kg, than all of the other species. Daily goat and sheep diets consisted of 51\% and 32\% shrub, respectively, with grasses comprising the remainder. Forbs composed 35\% of the sheep diet whereas, shrubs (51\%) dominated the goat diets on the reseeded rangeland. Liveweight gain differed (p\<0.05) between goats (34\ g/day) and sheep (14\ g/day). These preliminary results indicate that reseeding may be an important intervention for Pakistan rangeland improvement, for improving nutrition for small ruminants.

}, keywords = {behavior, forage species, Pakistan, rangeland, reseeding, Sheep and goat}, doi = {10.1016/S0921-4488(98)00157-6}, url = {/files/bibliography/668.pdf}, author = {Khan, M.F. and D.M. Anderson and Nutkani, M.I. and Butt, N.M.} }