Kochia Plant as Potential Forage for Ruminants under Desert Conditions

Kochia plant adapting to extreme environmental factors provide an important part of forage requirements for livestock grazing in arid and semi-arid regions. Many wild Kochia species are undervalued mainly because of insufficient knowledge about their potential feeding value, yields and their effect on animal performance. Therefore this review paper gives knowledge on Kochia plant as salt tolerant forage for feeding small ruminants under desert conditions. Many studies show that this plant could be used successfully as alternative feed to replace partially common feedstuff. However, the presence plant secondary metabolites should be taken into consideration in rations containing Kochia forage for small ruminants feeding. Most of feeding studies reported in this review have been carried in Egypt, results indicate that Kochia spp. provide a high crop production under salinity condition, improve animal performance and decrease feed cost.