Nutriotional Contents and Yield Performances of Lucerne (Medicago sativa L.) Cultivars in Southern Black Sea Shores

Effect of Environment x Cultivar Interaction on Protein and Mineral Contents of Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) in Central Anatolia, Turkey

“…While these results were in agreement with the earlier reports by Allen et al (1989), Nancy (1992), Tongel and Ayan (2010) and Turan et al (2010), the values were lower than those obtained by Collins (1989), Jenking and Bottemley (1984) and Smith (1969). The differences in the content of Mg found in this study, compared with the literature data, could partly be explained by differences between forage species, levels of Mg in the soil, influences of the location and climate, a growth stage, the proportion of leaf and stem fractions collected for mineral analysis, and the season when forage sampling was performed (Khan et al 2009(Khan et al , 2006.…”

“…Turan et al (2010) indicated that boron application increased tissue K accumulation and the K content ranged 16 to 38 g kg −1 . Tongel and Ayan (2010) mentioned that the K content of alfalfa varied from 2.96 to 5.83%. Scholtz et al (2009) found the K content to vary between 10.6 and 42.7 g kg -1 in 168 South African alfalfa hay samples.…”

“…The remarkable adaptability of alfalfa allows it to growing cold region such as Siberia and Alaska in the Northern Hemisphere and in a hot climate of North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula (Avci et al 2013). It is grown in all regions of Turkey (Tongel & Ayan 2010). The different regions have different climates, thus alfalfa cultivars grown in each region vary.…”

“…Although the crop yield is still the primary economic factor determining the forage crop value per unit of land area, the forage quality has become a close second (Orloff & Putnam 2007). The quality of alfalfa hay is closely related to its protein and mineral contents (Tongel & Ayan 2010). The alfalfa hay quality and concentrations of mineral elements in alfalfa can be influenced by factors such as harvesting at specific physiological stages, climatic factors, soil conditions, leaf losses during hay production, storage and feeding practices, diseases and insects, weeds, an alfalfa cultivar, the moisture content during storage, a water supply and fertilizer application (Kahraman 2017;Khan et al 2006;Orloff & Putnam 2007;Scholtz et al 2009).…”

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

“…4-24.0%, 18.9-22.7%, 7.5-9.7%, 27.5-42.9% and 39.3-50.3% for dry matter content, crude protein, crude ash, acid detergent fiber (ADF) and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) respectively (Tomic et al, 2006;Geren et al, 2009;Tongel and Ayan, 2010;Saruhan and Kusvuran, 2011;Albayrak and Turk, 2013). Alfalfa leaves serve as a factory for raw, biodegradable plastic beads, other industrial products or better livestock feed, while the stem goes to ethanol production.…”