Abstract
The preferred livelihood assets for meat and nutritious milk in thousands villages of Kurdistan rejoin/Iraq are sheep and goats. They generally rely on free roaming in rangeland during the growing seasons. In order to maintain their livestock during the scarcity of forages at winter seasons, the leaves and twigs of (Quercus aegilops, Q. infectoria and Q. libani) are harvested and dried as (dry leaf faggots) at autumn season to use as major substitute of feed. This study was conducted to evaluate the nutritional values of those three oaks species’ leaves at the same time of collecting period. Gara Mountains were chosen due to the wide presence of all three species. Leaves samples were collected at late September 2015 at elevation about 1250 MASL. The results have shown differences in chemical composition. Q. libani recorded higher content of dry matter (DM), ash and crude protein (CP), and lower content of crud fiber (CF). Higher content of ether extract (EE) was recorded in both Q. aegilops and Q. libani. The higher content of nitrogen free extract (NFE) and potassium (K) were recorded in Q. infectoria. While Q. aegilops recorded higher (CF) content. All Quercus species can be used as alternative feed substitute for small ruminant especially with some additives (such as salt, vitamin, and water), but more nutritive value was Q. libani then Q. infectoria followed by Q. aegilops. Therefore, the priority should be for Q. libani in foremost followed by Q. infectoria when dry leaves faggot were made.
Highlights
There is no information about nutritive value of oaks leaves (Quercus aegilops, Q. infectoria and Q. libani) in this region at autumn season, and it how far meet nutritional requirements of livestock, since local farmer and animal breeders of Kurdistan region have always practiced collecting oak leaves
The higher content of dry matter (DM) were recorded in Q. libani, even though it was not significantly differed with Q. aegilops; but both of them were significantly differed with Q. infectoria
It is obvious that the higher content of minerals was associated with Q. libani, but there were no significant differences among three oaks species were shown
Summary
The harvested and dried of oaks leaves and twigs (dry leaf faggots) of (Quercus aegilops, Q. infectoria and Q. libani), in addition to other roughages, are being the main sources of forage that farmers to rely on to feed their livestock during the forage scarcity seasons. Thousands of local people of Kurdistan villages in mountains are mostly farmers, they depending on farming and livestock (mainly sheep and goats) for their livelihood and welfare. They basically rely on rangelands for feeding their livestock, collecting and reserving oaks leaves (in a form of dry leaf faggots) during autumn can be very useful for that purpose during winter season when pasture forages have been depleted (figure 4)
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