Determining the nutrient content, relative feed value, and in vitro digestibility value of some legume forage plants

The purpose of this study was to determine the feed values of some legume forage plants growing in a natural environment. The plant materials used in the study were as follows: Alfalfa (Medicago sativa), varigated alfalfa (Medicago varia), bird vetch (Vicia cracca), mountain vetch (Vicia alpestris), mountain clover (Trifolium montanum), kura clover (Trifolium ambiguum), three-headed clover (Trifolium trichocephalum), purple crownvetch (Coronilla varia), and bird’s foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus). The feeds were examined in terms of nutrient content, relative feed value, true dry matter digestibility, true organic matter digestibility, true neutral detergent fiber digestibility, and relative feed quality. The legume forage plants were found to be significantly different from each other in terms of nutrient contents (P<0.05). The mountain clover was found to have the highest contents of crude protein and crude fat among the legume forage plants examined in this study, while the alfalfa was found to have more contents of dry matter and NDF than the other legume forage plants. On the other hand, the dry matter intake was found to be the highest in the three-headed clover, the dry matter digestibility and relative feed value were found to be the highest in the purple crownvetch, and the relative feed quality was found to be the highest in the mountain vetch. The nutrient contents, relative feed values, and relative feed quality values of the forage plants showed that they could be used in animal feeding.