Table 2. Effects of stocking rate on herbage attributes and liveweight gain of yaks in an alpine meadow on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.
| Variable | Stocking rate | P-values of variables | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| df | Y | B | SR | Y×SR | Y×B | |||||
| C | LS | MS | HS | s.e. | 3 | 2 | 3 | 9 | 6 | |
| HB (kg ha-1) | 1271a | 1250a | 1076b | 924c | 19 | 0.047 | 0.116 | <0.001 | 0.037 | 0.390 |
| N (g kg-1) | 14.2a | 14.8a | 15.3a | 16.3a | 0.5 | <0.001 | 0.844 | 0.046 | 0.999 | 0.997 |
| CF (g kg-1) | 29c | 31bc | 34ab | 36a | 6.2 | 0.001 | 0.660 | 0.029 | 0.886 | 0.974 |
| ADF (g kg-1) | 331a | 317ab | 301bc | 281c | 38 | 0.693 | 0.461 | 0.021 | 0.777 | 0.800 |
| NDF (g kg-1) | 611a | 580ab | 558bc | 546c | 65 | 0.015 | 0.739 | 0.011 | 0.835 | 0.955 |
| TDN (g kg-1) | 59b | 60b | 64a | 64a | 0.5 | 0.693 | 0.461 | 0.037 | 0.437 | 0.800 |
| ME (MJ kg-1) | 8.9b | 9.1b | 9.6a | 9.7a | 0.1 | 0.692 | 0.462 | 0.037 | 0.434 | 0.803 |
| LG (g yak-1 d-1) | - | 489a | 439b | 394c | 5.4 | <0.001 | 0.026 | 0.017 | 0.297 | 0.917 |
| LG (g ha-1 d-1) | - | 367c | 440 b | 493a | 10 | <0.001 | 0.055 | 0.001 | 0.016 | 0.991 |
Notes: biomass (HB), nitrogen (N), crude fat (CF), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), total digestible nutrients (TDN), metabolizable energy (ME), liveweight gain (LG) per yak and per ha.