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Impact of habitat type on forage quality of seedling oak leaves in central Wisconsin

Informally Refereed

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to determine if relative feed value or crude protein in seedling oak leaves was different between three central Wisconsin habitat type groupings. Seedling oak leaves of two species were collected from oak sites that represented either fully stocked or understocked conditions from three possible habitat type groupings: (1) Acer-Tilia-Fraxinus/Circaea/Acer-Quercus/Viburnum-Geranium variant, (2) Acer rubrum/Desmodium, and (3) Pinus/Euphorbia/Pinus/Vaccinium-Gaultheria. The leaves were analyzed for crude protein, acid detergent fiber, neutral detergent fiber, and relative feed value. Northern pin oak (Q. ellipsoidalis) had higher levels of crude protein and relative feed value than northern red oak (Q. rubra). Pinus/Euphorbia/Pinus/Vaccinium-Gaultheria sites had the highest crude protein and the lowest relative feed value, although the relative feed value was still very high. Generally, oak appears to have very good forage characteristics.

Parent Publication

Citation

Demchik, Michael. 2014. Impact of habitat type on forage quality of seedling oak leaves in central Wisconsin. In: Groninger, John W.; Holzmueller, Eric J.; Nielsen, Clayton K.; Dey, Daniel C., eds. Proceedings, 19th Central Hardwood Forest Conference; 2014 March 10-12; Carbondale, IL. General Technical Report NRS-P-142. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station: 84-88.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/47381