Evaluation On The Productive Performance Of Different Alfalfa (Medicago Sativa L.) Cultivars

Alfalfa is a very significant kind of forage in stockbreeding for its high yield and high quality. For the demand of Beijing, the research about seventeen cultivars of Alfalfa about production trait and quality characteristics had been done from 2002 to 2007. Many things have been done to analyze and evaluate them systematically, such as field observations, comparison test and mathematical statistics methods. Finding the high yield and high quality cultivar for Beijing region is main aim of the experiment. The results are following:1 .By analysis of variance about height of different cultivar, the result is that significant deviation about height of different cuts and years. The first cut was the highest and the forth was the lowest. The Maximum of average height appeared in the third year. The best cultivars about height contain zhongmu.NO.1, German, Baoding and Vector.2 .The absolute growth rate of different cuts was different. The first cut was the highest and the forth was the lowest. The growth rate of different years was different obviously. The absolute growth rate of the third year was the highest. As time went, it decreased. The best cultivars about absolute growth rate contain German, Baoding, zhongmu.NO.1 and CW400.3 .The regrowth rate of different cuts of 17 cultivars was obviously different. The first cut was the highest and the third was the lowest. The regrowth rate of different years seemed to be slowly incremental. The regrowth intensity of different cuts was obviously different and the first cut was the highest. The ratio of fresh-weight to dry-weight of different cuts was quiet. The stem-leave ratio was reduced from the first cut to the forth cut and it gradually diminished.4 .The productions of different cuts are obviously different. The first cut had the highest production and it could reach 37% of gross production of the year and the second cut only 26%. The gross production of different years was obviously different. Gross production of the third year was the highest and the seventh year was the lowest which was lower than that in the second year. So we got the conclusion that the third year was the high-yield period. The best period of economic use was the fifth or sixth years. The best four about gross production of six years are following: German, Baoding, zhongmu.NO.1 and CW400.5. By production Correlation analysis, we got the conclusion that the relationship between gross production and the productions of every year was significant positive correlation. The correlativity between gross production and the production of the third year was the highest and correlativity between gross production and the production of the second year was the lowest.6. By the method of cluster analysis, 17 kinds of alfalfa's production character were divided into three groups, high, middle and low. Baoding, M.sativa L.cv zhongmu.NO.1, German, CW400, CW300 and Vector are the first group whose economic character are very good because of high production, high renewable rate, good persistence and high adaptability. They are suitable for breeding in Beijing area.