The amount of forage production is basically used to determine grazing capacity. Measuring the amount of rangelAND production to determine the carrying capacity, is one of the most important factor. Various METHODs depend on vegetation type, density, percentages of canopy cover, affordable time, accuracy, experts experience, etc., have been proposed. Measuring the amount of forage production with CLIPPING AND weighting METHOD is the most reliable METHOD, but it is time consuming AND expensive. So we must choose an accurate AND simple METHOD with less cost AND time consumption. One of these METHODs is application of grassmaster that is one of the capacitance meter type. The objective of research was investigation on grassmaster efficiency comparing with CLIPPING AND weighting METHOD in three types of grasslAND, alfa-alfa fields AND shrublANDs in two growth stages (flowering AND seed ripening). In each habitat along 2 transects, 200 plots (1m2) were used. In each plot production with CLIPPING AND weighting METHOD AND with grassmaster was measured. Data were analysed using SPSS version 15 software. The Results showed that grassmaster in shrublAND didn’t record any data. Therefore, grassmaster is not suitable for shrublANDs. In grasslAND AND alfa-alfa field according to correlation coefficients, results were as follows: grasslANDs in flowering stage (97%), seed ripening stage (92%), cultivated alfa-alfa in flowering stage (61%), seed ripening stage (27%). So the best efficiency obtained for GrasslANDs.

To find an accurate AND rapid METHOD of estimating herbage stANDing crop, CLIPPING AND WEIGHING, double sampling, AND comparative yield METHODs were compared in two vegetation types of grasslANDs AND one cushion shrublAND in Sar-Aliabad summer rangelANDs of Golestan province. In representative stANDs of each vegetation type, eighty 1-m2 plots were clipped AND weighed. In double sampling METHOD, 16 plots were estimated AND clipped. In comparative yield METHOD, stANDard (reference) plots were used as the highest yield belonged to the reference plot 5 AND the lowest yield belonged to the reference plot 1. A high correlation was found between estimated AND clipped plot in double sampling METHOD. There was also high correlation between reference plots AND their weights, so estimation of double sampling AND ranks of comparative yield METHOD were corrected by using regression equations. There were no significant differences among 3 METHODs, but time consumption of double sampling was better than the other METHODs. So, because of extensive application of double sampling METHOD in grasslANDs AND shrublANDs AND its high accuracy AND precision this METHOD of yield estimation is recommended for the study area.

To find an accurate AND rapid METHOD of estimating herbage stANDing crop, CLIPPING AND WEIGHING, double sampling, AND comparative yield METHODs were compared in two vegetation types of grasslANDs AND one cushion shrub lAND in Sar-Ali abad summer rangelANDs of Golestan province. In representative stANDs of each vegetation type, eighty 1-m2 plots were clipped AND weighted. In double sampling, 16 plots were estimated AND clipped. In comparative yield METHOD, stANDard (reference) plots were used as the highest AND the lowest yield were recorded for the reference plot 5 AND reference plot 1, respectively. There was high correlation between estimated AND clipped plots in double sampling. There was also high correlation between reference plots AND their weights; therefore, the estimation of double sampling AND the ranks of comparative yield METHOD were corrected by using regression equations. There were no significant differences among 3 METHODs, but the time consumption of double sampling was better than the other METHODs. Given the widespread use of double sampling METHOD in grasslANDs AND shrub lANDs AND also its high accuracy AND precision, this METHOD is recommended for the study area.

To find an accurate AND rapid METHOD of estimating herbage crop, Double Sampling (DS), Comparative Yield (CY), AND CLIPPING AND WEIGHING (CW) METHODs were applied to a summer rangelAND in North-eastern Alborz Mountains, Iran. The METHOD was called SMFY (Simulation Model of Forage Yield) to emphasize the statistical aspects of simulated model. In representative stANDs five 1-m2 reference plots were chosen to represent the ranges of stANDing crop. Using a systematic-rANDom design, 180 1-m2 plots were ranked against the reference plots for CY, visually estimated for DS, AND subsequently, all of them were Clipped AND Weighed (CW). After CLIPPING AND WEIGHING 5 reference plots with 6 replications for CY AND estimating AND CLIPPING 37 plots for DS, regression lines were plotted between the estimated, ranked, AND clipped plots. This study was conducted during 2011-13. There was high correlation (0. 90-0. 99) for DS AND CY, so the estimated AND ranked data were corrected based on the regression equations. There were strong linear relationships between the corrected AND clipped data for the DS AND CY METHODs which confirmed the suitability of both METHODs against the CW, so all of 180 estimated plots were corrected AND were compared by ANOVA. The non-significant F for CY, DS, AND CW confirmed the high efficiency of DS AND CY, so based on the estimated production, grazing capacity of study area was calculated. Preferring one of these METHODs depends on further research in time AND cost efficiency of DS AND CY. Available DM of 389. 75 kg/ha support 6. 5 AUM per ha AND for the grazing period of 4 months, each hectare of this rangelAND can carry on 1. 62 AU per ha. The current stocking rate of study area is about 0. 82 AU per hectare which was suitable based on carrying capacity of study area.

In the present study four METHODs for shrub production measurement were compared namely: Adelaide technique, double sampling with usage of cover percentage for 20 AND 25 percent direct sampling AND CLIPPING AND WEIGHING METHOD. The result of CLIPPING AND WEIGHING METHOD was considered as index. Their accuracy AND time consumption were compared. For this purpose four species including Artemisia sieberi, Eurotia ceratoides, Salsola rigida AND Aellenia subaphylla were selected. The result showed that the best METHOD for all shrubs (except Aellenia subaphylla) was double sampling with 20% direct sampling. The Adelaide technique can be an accurate METHOD for Aellenia subaphylla, because this plant is big in height with sparse distribution of twigs AND branches.Therefore using cover information in the double sampling METHOD is recommended as the best METHOD for shrub production measurement.

Plant biomass is an important factor for determining arid AND semi-arid rangelANDs capacity. Due to the lack of proper AND annual sampling of rangelANDs, there are no suitable data to determine biomass, range condition AND proper range management operations. Plant biomass is one of the measurable attributes that can be assessed in rangelAND studies. Since the clip AND weight METHOD is destructive AND time-consuming, green biomass was estimated by using dimensional parameters (Plant Allometry) including canopy cover, length AND width of diameters. Field sampling was done using seventy 2×2 m quadrats along five 100 m transects. The data were analyzed by stepwise regression. The results showed that the fresh AND dry biomass showed significant positive correlations with canopy cover, the length AND width of diameters of Halocnemum strobilaceum shrub (p<0.05). The results of stepwise regression showed that just canopy cover AND diameter length were remained in the final model, so that 80.2% of biomass variations were explained by canopy cover AND diameter length.

Introduction: Iran is one of the main producers of kiwifruit in the world. Unfortunately, the sorting AND grading of the kiwifruits are manual, which is a time consuming AND labor intensive task. Due to the lack of appropriate devices for sorting AND grading of kiwifruit based on the quality parameters, only 10% of total production is exported (Mohammadian & Esehaghi Teymouri, 1999)....

One of the goals of targets ecologist is to determine accurate, fast AND low cost METHOD to determine the yield of rangelAND plants which are interesting for them AND the lencwledge of the amount of vegetation changes. Measurement of vegetation cover is easy but measurement of yield in plants is difficult. The aim of this research is to determine the relationships between variables vegetation cover with dominated AND important shrubs yeild in dry rangelAND of Sorkhdeh of Damghan provice. First 30 individual of 3 species of Artemisia aucheri, Salsola dendroides AND Salicornia herbacea with different size. Were selected therefore small AND large diameter variables AND height of species were calcutated.The present yield was measured by CLIPPING AND weighting METHOD. Regression relationship was determined between the independent variables including height, canopy cover AND volume shrubs AND dependent variable including yield. Regression analysis showed that there ware significant line relationship between independent variables AND dependent variables in all species. Result according to information of models AND coefficient of determination showed that variables of vegetation cover of species of Salsola dendroides AND Salicornia herbacea well can be estimated yield in species we can develop this model in the study area. But this model of information of Artemisia aucheri cannot be estimated yield in the study area. Therefore these models cannot be developed AND suggested in the study area.

Knowledge of forage production is one of the most important factors in range management program. Direct measurement of forage production is rather expensive AND time consuming. The major objective of this study was to fit a model AND to estimate the annual forage production of 19 shrub AND forbs species. In Kashmar flood spreading area of Khorasan province. Annual forage production of 30 plants of each species were measured AND compared with measurements of plant height AND crown diameter at flowering stages AND multiplication of the values of these two factors. Results showed that plant height times crown diameter in all species except Poa bulbosa AND Polygonum arenastrum are a good estimation of forage yield AND dry matter production. In general there was a positively significant linear relationship between forage production AND crown diameter or plant height * crown diameter for all species under study (P< 0.05) . An exponential model for forage production of Scoriala orientalis, Artemisia siberi AND poteropyrum olivieri were detected. These results suggest that a linear or exponential model based on annual growth (height AND crown diameter) is a good estimation of forage production if adequate sampling AND suitable time is considered.