Comportamiento estacional del contenido mineral en hojas de Morus spp utilizadas en la alimentación de caprinos

Brem, J.J.; Ortiz, M.L.; Trulls, H.E.; Zach, A.; Brem, J.C.: Seasonal behavior of min- eral content in leaves of Morus spp used in goat feeding. Rev. vet. 23: 2, 116-119, 2012. Ten percent of Argentina's goat farming takes place in the northeast region of the country under farm-household system with low production rates. One mechanism for achieving greater im- pact on regional production is to incorporate some process technology such as nutritional enhancement of the flock. Linkage between fodder shrubs and animals has usually been used for small ruminants production, situation known as agroforestry system, considered desirable and economically viable. A high mineral content in leaves of Morus alba has been found. On the contrary, no toxic or anti-nutritional factors are present in the plant. The objective of this work was to obtain information regarding seasonal mineral content in the leaves of mulberry trees for the area of Corrientes, northeastern Argentina. We report the results of the analysis of the leaves samples gathered in fall, spring and summer from 2011 to 2012. Cold season was not considered for the assay as no foliar growth takes place during this time of the year. The samples were placed in a drying oven for 36 hours at 56°C, 12 hours at 105°C and then at 550oC. Calcium, magnesium, iron, copper, manganese and zinc were determined from ashes dissolutions by atomic absorption spectrophotometry, and inorganic phosphorus by photo- colorimetrical method with ammonium molybdate at 620 nm. We present average seasonal