Determination of plant species and compositions, herbage yield and quality of different pastures belonging to Sivrice district of Elazığ province

The aim of this study was to determine the ecological characteristics of natural pastures around Hazar Lake in Sivrice district of Elazığ province. Within the scope of the study, four different natural pastures in Sivrice region were analysed. Although studies on pastures have been carried out in many regions throughout Turkey, the fact that such a study has not been carried out in Sivrice region makes this study unique. The research was conducted between 2022 and 2023, and measurements of the vegetation period of the pastures were made using the 'Point Quadrat' (Point Frame) method. A total of 73 species belonging to 19 different plant families were identified in the investigated areas. Of these species, 9 belonged to grass family, 10 to legume family and 54 to other plant families. The families with the highest number of species were Asteraceae (18 species), Fabaceae (10 species) and Poaceae (9 species). The dominant plant species in the study area were Hordeum bulbosum L. (26.49%), Taeniatherum caput-medusae (L.) Nevski (22.94%), Medicago minima (L.) Bart. (17.17%) and Lathyrus sativus L. (14.18%). Within the scope of the study, existing plant species were identified and classified as legumes, grass family and other plant families. In addition, total area covered by plants, botanical composition, botanical composition by weight, grass yield (green and dry), pasture quality status and quality parameters (CP, DM, ADF, NDF, ADP, RFV, DMM, DMI, RFQ, TDN) were analysed. In addition to these quality parameters, mineral matter properties (K, Ca, Mg, P, Ca/P, K/(Mg+Ca) in the study area were also evaluated. The findings of the research revealed that the proportions of legumes, wheatgrasses and other families differed according to years and study areas. In order to determine these differences, one way analysis of variance was performed in JUMP programme and the differences between the groups were compared with LSD test.