Результаты селекции новых образцов люцерны

Abstract

The results of breeding studies conducted at the Central Experimental Base of the 
 V. R. Williams Federal Research Center for Animal Feed in the Central Region of the Non-Chernozem Zone of the Russian Federation are presented. Brief data on new alfalfa samples created in the alfalfa breeding department are presented. The research involves simple and complex hybrids of different types and varieties of alfalfa. The purpose of the research is to select samples based on valuable economic and biological properties: winter hardiness, leafiness, height of herbage, precocity, growth rates, lodging and seed productivity. Alfalfa is a culture that is characterized by ecological plasticity, longevity, capable of solving the problem of eliminating the deficiency of vegetable protein in the diets of farm animals in many regions of Russia. It can be used as a legume component of grass mixtures on pastures and hayfields of the Non-Chernozem zone. It is known that the use of mineral nitrogen in meadow farming and field forage production is limited due to high energy costs in the production of nitrogen fertilizers. Therefore, the need for nitrogen in meadows and pastures should be met at the expense of legume-cereal grass mixtures, for which it is necessary to create new varieties of legumes, in particular alfalfa variable or hybrid. Alfalfa in our country, due to the wide variety of species and ecotypes, has the widest cultivation area compared to other perennial grasses. But for the extreme conditions of the Non-Chernozem zone of Russia, it is considered a relatively new culture. Of all the known species for the Non-Chernozem zone, the most adapted are variable alfalfa (Medicago varia Mart.), yellow alfalfa (Medicago falcate L.), alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.).