BIOCHEMICAL AND MACROELEMENT COMPOSITION OF CHINESE LEYMUS (LEYMUS CHINENSIS (TRIN.) TZVEL.) IN THE UDA RIVER VALLEY (WESTERN TRANSBAIKALIA)

Leymus chinensis in the valley of the middle reaches of the Uda River forms significant areas of forage lands, being a valuable resource species. Its production, the number of vegetative and generative shoots, their height, and spike length varied significantly. For the first time, the biochemical and mineral composition, nutritive and energy values of this species were determined for the northeast of the Western Transbaikalia and their compliance with the standards of plant fodder was established mainly except for the increased content of crude fiber. Protein ratio, as an indicator of feed digestibility, had medium (1 : 6/8–7.7) and wide (1 : 8.7–9.1) levels. The sum of digestible nutrients, total and metabolizable energy content of the forage were relatively constant, which is due to the short growing season in the sharply continental climate of the region. It was shown for the first time that the chemical composition of morphological components (leaves, stems, ears) of L. chinensis growing in floodplain steppe meadows changed little and had a set of elements-dominants: ears – N>K>P, leaves – N>K>Ca, stems – N>K>S(P). Because of the high concentration of sulfur in the ears of plants on saline soil, the elements were arranged as follows: N>S>K. It was found that the difference in the content of carbon and macroelements in the plants of the species growing in similar conditions of the steppe floodplain was insignificant and differed significantly in salinity. The peculiarity of the mineral composition of the above-ground phytomass was the high amount of S as well as a very wide K/Na ratio (38–65). The evaluation of the current state of productivity and quality of this species as a valuable resource cereal was given.