Yield, yield components and dry matter digestibility of alfalfa experimental populations

Alfalfa is the most important forage crop grown in the temperate regions. It is cultivated for production of vegetative aerial mass used fresh or as hay, and recently as haylage and silage. In many centres worldwide, efforts are made to breed and create new alfalfa cultivars with both higher yields...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Katić Slobodan, Milić Dragan, Mihailović Vojislav, Karagić Đura, Pojić Milica
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Institute of field and vegetable crops, Novi Sad 2010-01-01
Series:Ratarstvo i Povrtarstvo
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Online Access:http://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/1821-3944/2010/1821-39441001209K.pdf
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Summary:Alfalfa is the most important forage crop grown in the temperate regions. It is cultivated for production of vegetative aerial mass used fresh or as hay, and recently as haylage and silage. In many centres worldwide, efforts are made to breed and create new alfalfa cultivars with both higher yields and of higher nutritional value. The aim of this paper was to determine yield and digestibility of 12 experimental populations of alfalfa, and to compare their results to the yields of well-known domestic alfalfa commercial cultivars. The results show significant differences in yield of green forage and dry matter among alfalfa populations, as well as in yield components, height, proportion of leaves in yield and growth rate (tab. 1, 2 and 3). Differences between in vitro digestible dry matter (%) and yields of in vitro digestible dry matter (t ha-1) were also significant (tab. 5 and 6). Yield and quality of experimental populations were at the same level or higher than of control cultivars. Synthetic SINUSA exceeded the control cutivars (NS Mediana ZMS V and Banat VS) in yield and quality of dry matter. .
ISSN:1821-3944
2217-8392