Fan Qingshan, Wang Zhaofeng, Chang Shenghua, Peng Zechen, Wanapat Metha, Bowatte Saman, Hou Fujiang
State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems; Key Laboratory of Grassland Livestock Industry Innovation, Ministry of Agriculture; College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730020, China.
Tropical Feed Resources Research and Development Center (TROFREC), Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand.
Asian-Australas J Anim Sci. 2020 Jan;33(1):44-52. doi: 10.5713/ajas.18.0955. Epub 2019 Apr 15.
Minerals are one of the important nutrients for supporting the growth of sheep grazing in the highland, northeast of China. The experiment was conducted to investigate the relationship of both macro and micro minerals in sheep grazing in the highlands of six districts located in the Qilian Mountain of China.
Samples of herbage (n=240) and soil (n=240) were collected at random in a "W" shape across the area designated for harvesting from 24 farms, where the sheep commonly graze in October (winter) for mineral analyses. In addition, serum samples were taken via jugular vein from 20 sheep per farm from 24 farms (n=480 samples in total) for serum minerals analyses. Mean values of macro and micro minerals were statistically compared among districts and the correlations among soil-plant-animal were statistically analyzed and correlations were regressed, as well.
The results revealed that there were variations for both macro and micro minerals among districts. Statistical analysis of the correlation coefficients between herbage and sheep were significantly different for most of the minerals but not for P, Cu, and Se. Many correlation regression coefficients were found significantly different among minerals of herbage, soil, and sheep serum especially those of K, Na, Fe, Mn, and Zn (between herbage and sheep serum), and Fe and Mn (between herbage and soil), Na, Fe, Mn, and Zn (between soil and sheep serum), respectively. The regression coefficient equations derived under this experiment for prediction of Ca (R2=0.618), K (R2=0.803), Mg (R2=0.767), Na (R2=0.670), Fe (R2=0.865), Zn (R2=0.950), Mn (R2=0.936), and Se (R2=0.630), resulted in significant R2 values.
It is inferred that the winter herbage minerals in all the districts were below the recommended levels for macro minerals which indicated there would be some mineral deficiencies in sheep grazing the herbage in these regions. Supplemental minerals may therefore play an important role in balancing the minerals available from the herbage in winter and would lead to increased productivity in sheep on the highland areas of China. These findings could be potentially applied to the other regions for improving the livestock productivity.
矿物质是支持中国东北高原地区放牧绵羊生长的重要营养素之一。本试验旨在研究中国祁连山六个地区高原放牧绵羊体内常量和微量矿物质之间的关系。
从24个农场中，按照“W”形在指定收割区域随机采集牧草样本（n = 240）和土壤样本（n = 240），这些农场的绵羊通常在10月（冬季）放牧，用于矿物质分析。此外，从24个农场的每个农场中选取20只绵羊，通过颈静脉采集血清样本（共n = 480个样本）用于血清矿物质分析。对各地区常量和微量矿物质的平均值进行统计学比较，并对土壤 - 植物 - 动物之间的相关性进行统计分析和相关性回归分析。
结果表明，各地区常量和微量矿物质均存在差异。大多数矿物质的牧草与绵羊之间的相关系数统计分析存在显著差异，但磷、铜和硒除外。在牧草、土壤和绵羊血清的矿物质之间发现许多相关回归系数存在显著差异，特别是钾、钠、铁、锰和锌（牧草与绵羊血清之间），以及铁和锰（牧草与土壤之间），钠、铁、锰和锌（土壤与绵羊血清之间）。本试验得出的用于预测钙（R2 = 0.618）、钾（R2 = 0.803）、镁（R2 = 0.767）、钠（R2 = 0.670）、铁（R2 = 0.865）、锌（R2 = 0.950）、锰（R2 = 0.936）和硒（R2 = 0.630）的回归系数方程，其R2值显著。
据推断，所有地区冬季牧草中的矿物质含量均低于常量矿物质的推荐水平，这表明在这些地区放牧的绵羊可能存在一些矿物质缺乏的情况。因此，补充矿物质可能在平衡冬季牧草中可利用的矿物质方面发挥重要作用，并将提高中国高原地区绵羊的生产力。这些研究结果可能潜在地应用于其他地区，以提高牲畜生产力。
