Seasonal variation in foliage quality of Acacia modesta wall. Growing in different ecological zones of Pothwar,Pakistan

In this study,the seasonal variability in nutritive value of foliage of acacia modesta wall,was evaluated. leaves and twigs of a modesta were collected from low,medium and high rainfall pothwar regions of pakistan i.e. rawalpindi,jhelum and talagang during spring,summer and fall seasons. the forage samples were analysed for dry matter (dm),crude protein (cp),ether extract (ee),ash content (ac),crude fibre (cf),acid detergent fibre (adf),neutral detergent fibre (ndf) and acid detergent lignin (adl). dry matter varied from 44.3 to 65.0% and was significantly higher during fall than spring and summer season at all three sites. talagang site had the highest dry matter followed by jhelum and rawalpindi sites. the cp was in the range of 14.4-17.4%. the cp was in order of spring,summer and fall season. rawalpindi and jhelum had the highest cp (16.4%) followed by talagang site (15.9%). ash content and ether extract (ee) ranged from 5.8 to 10.4% and 1.1 to 3.2% in season and site interaction. crude fibre (cf) value ranged from 19.9 to 27.6% and was significantly higher in fall than spring and summer. the highest cf (24.6%) was found at rawalpindi followed by jhelum (21.6%) and talagang (22.1%). seasonal variation in adf and ndf ranged from 34.4 to 38.5% and 50.5 to 56.5%,respectively. the adf and ndf were lower in summer season than in spring and fall seasons. adf was the highest (36.4%) at jhelum followed by talagang (36.3%) and rawalpindi site (35.9%). the adl ranged from 9.8 to 13.4% and was higher in summer than in spring and fall seasons. based on chemical composition,it was concluded that a. modesta foliage contained high nutritional values and can be fed to ruminants as supplement to lowquality feeds particularly during the dry season.