The effect of certain rehabilitation methods on forage yield of Düzce Odayeri rangeland

Mountain rangelands are one of the most important natural resources of Turkey. Rangelands are located almost every region of the country and they provide the cheapest source of forage for livestock. Uncontrolled grazing has increased the pressure on mountain rangelands, and today many rangelands have been covered with shrubs and weeds away from the climax vegetation cover. However, the contribution of these areas to livestock production can be increased by rehabilitation methods appropriate to rangeland situation and structure. While there are many studies on the improvement of lower rangelands in Turkey, there few researches on upland rangelands. In this study, the effects of different rehabilitation methods on the yield of rangelands were investigated in an upland rangeland with medium feed efficiency. The study was conducted in 2016 and 2017 in Duzce, Odayeri rangeland with an altitude of 1200 m, is close to the average altitude of upland average of Turkey. The research consists of 18 parcels of 30 m2 size; randomly selected by applying 6 treatments (control, seed cultivation, herbicide, fertilizer, fertilizer+herbicide, seed cultivation+fertilizer) with 3 replicates. The study revealed that forage yields of fertilizer (390,0 kg/da) and herbicide+fertilizer (325,4 kg/da) were significantly higher than that of control parcel (196,3 kg/da). Results suggested that rehabilitation methods such as fertilizer and herbicide+fertilizer can be applied to Odayeri rangeland and other rangelands with similar ecological conditions in order to increase forage yield significantly