Journal of Rangeland

Rangeland production mainly depends on rainfall in arid and semi-arid areas. Using polyacrylamide polymers can reduce water shortage stress in some extent. The present study was carried out to investigate and compare the influence of polyacrylamide and animal manure on the performance of F. ovina species under drought stress. The effects of three levels of water stress as the main factor and six levels of polymers & manure as the secondary factor on F. ovina production were studied and analyzed. The used six levels of polymer & manure treatment were T₁: Control, T₂: 0Gr. Polyacrylamide, 50Gr. Manure, T₃: 5Gr. Polyacrylamide, 0Gr. Manure, T₄: 5Gr. Polyacrylamide, 50Gr. Manure, T₅: 10Gr. Polyacrylamide, 0Gr. Manure, and T₆: 10Gr. Polyacrylamide, 50Gr. Manure. The collected data was analyzed using a split plot layout within a randomized complete block design with three replications. According to the results, T₁, T₂ and T₃ in compare with T₆ had significant different effects on the species height. The application of T₄ and T₆ had relatively the same effects on the species height and did not differ significantly. The lowest and highest heights of the species were recorded using T₀ and T₆ respectively. The Production and the regrowth yield of the species in T₁ to T₅ levels were increased compared with T₀. According to the results, despite the doubling the amount of polyacrylamide in T₅ compared with T₃, the species production and its regrowth yield did not increased significantly. The differences between T₃ and T₄ levels and also between T5 and T6 levels were significant. Overall, using polyacrylamide polymer and manure improved F. ovina performances. The best performance of the species obtained via using 10g of polyacrylamide polymer and 50g of animal manure in laboratory conditions. Moreover, the obtained results confirmed that using a combination of polyacrylamide polymer and animal manure had more positive effects on the performance of F. ovina than using higher amount of polyacrylamide polymer alone.