Productive Performance of Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) at Different Age of Resprout in the Spring Season

Abstract

Objective: To determine the growth and productive performance curves, to obtain the optimal cutting moment in alfalfa, depending on the age of resprouting, in the Spring season.Design/Methodology/Approach: The treatments were cuts at different age of the plant and the variables evaluated: Dry Matter Yield (DMY) Botanical and Morphological composition (BMC), Plant Height (PH), Leaf/Stem Ratio (L/SR), and Intercepted Radiation (IR). The stastical analysis was with the PROC GLM procedure, of the SAS software, and the adjustedcurves were obtained with the Curve Expert Professional 2.0 software.Results: There was an increase in the DMY, leaf, stem, PH, and IR, as the resprouting age advanced, but not, the L/SR which had an inverse behavior. The maximum DMY was obtained (4,768 kg DM ha-1) in week seven. There was a greater amount of leaf with average 52%, followed by the stem (36%), weeds (7%), detritus (4%) and inflorescence (1%). The PH washigher in week seven with 53 cm. Likewise, the highest IR in week tree with 86%. However, the L/SR was higher in week one with 2.4. The IR and L/SR presented the lowest R2 (0.90 and 0.93, respectively). In contrast, DMY and PH presented apositive relationship (R2 of 0.98 and 0.97, respectively).Study Limitations/Implications: There were no limitationsFindings/Conclusions: The productive performance of Premium variety alfalfa was variable depending on the resprouting age, in which the botanical and morphological characteristics changed, with better characteristics in the fifth week