Entry ✕ Environment Interactions for Alfalfa Forage Quality

Abstract

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) cultivars are available that produce high‐quality forage; however, information is lacking on the consistency of cultivar forage quality over environments and the influence of stand age on quality. Our objectives were to evaluate alfalfa cultivars for consistency of forage quality over time and environments and to test the validity of sampling seeding‐year stands for forage quality. We sampled eight alfalfa entries (seven cultivars and one experimental germplasm) at bud and flower maturity stages in the seeding year (one harvest) and first production year (two harvests) in six states (Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, New York, Washington, and Wisconsin). ANOVA and orthogonal contrast analyses were conducted to assess entry × environment interactions for forage quality. First‐cut forage in the first production year had lower forage quality than third‐cut forage, and differences between entries were more pronounced at the first cutting. Including seeding‐year data in the ANOVA produced a complex location × entry × stand age interaction, indicating that seeding‐year data alone were insufficient to characterize alfalfa entries for forage quality. ‘Cimarron VR’, ‘Arrow’, and ‘5432’ had the greatest stability for forage quality and could serve as high, medium, and low forage‐quality checks, respectively, in forage quality testing trials. ‘WL 322 HQ’ and ‘Pacesetter’ often had high quality, but were not stable for forage quality over environments. Correlations between crude protein, acid detergent fiber (ADF), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), and in vitro digestible dry matter were consistent across locations, entries, cuttings, and maturities. The high correlation between NDF and ADF (r > 0.97, P < 0.05) suggests that it may not be necessary to use both procedures to predict entry differences in forage quality.

Estimation of red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) forage quality parameters dependingon the variety, cut and growing year

“…This confirmed the results of Sheaffer et al (1998) who also found the highest content of crude protein in the third cut. The highest degNL values were found in the second cut for all varieties.…”

“…The inverse relationship of advancing forage maturity and declining of forage quality is well established. However, Sheaffer et al (1998) indicated on the basis of their experiment that ranking of alfalfa entries for forage quality was more affected by season than by either location or maturity of the alfalfa. Also Hall et al (2000) found no connection between growth period or sampling time and forage quality at alfalfa cultivars.…”

“…As Buxton (1996) indicated, plant environment modifies the impact of forage maturity resulting in year-to-year, seasonal and geographical effects on forage quality, even when harvested at the same stage of maturity. The documented seasonal variation in forage quality suggests that stability analyses for forage quality include cutting-to-cutting stability within a year as well as year-to-year stability (Sheaffer et al 1998).…”

YIELD AND QUALITY PERFORMANCES OF VARIOUS ALFALFA (Medicago sativa L.) CULTIVARS IN DIFFERENT SOIL TEXTURES IN A MEDITERRANEAN ENVIRONMENT

“…The reason for having no striking variation in terms of either crude protein or crude ash content could be that all tested alfalfa crops were cut in similar flowering stages (10-25% flowering) during harvest procedures. Present results indicated that the crude protein and crude ash contents of tested crop materials represented the high quality legume hay and the values were in agreement with those of many researchers (Sheaffer et al, 1998;Avcioglu et al, 2001;Avci et al, 2013). The effects of YxST interaction and Y and C on NDF value were significant, while the other two or three way interactions were not (Table 5).…”

“…Many studies on coarse textured soil displayed the dry matter yield of alfalfa superiority of to fine textured soils (Rechel et al, 1991;Geren et al, 2009). In the coastal regions, non-dormant alfalfa cultivars suitable to warm, humid climates are common (Sheaffer et al, 1998). However, in the cool and high plateaus of eastern Turkey dormant and cold tolerant cultivars can be grown successfully (Altinok and Karakaya, 2002).…”