PRODUCTIVITY OF ALFALFA VARIETIES AND NUTRITIONAL VALUE OF THE RESULTING FEED IN THE CONDITIONS OF THE REPUBLIC OF BASHKORTOSTAN

Alfalfa is one of the ancient crops cultivated by man. In many countries of the world it is called the queen of herbs and research in the direction of increasing its productivity is always highly relevant. The purpose of the research (2022–2024) is to assess the forage productivity of alfalfa varieties that can reveal their potential in the conditions of the Ufimskaya OS of the Ufa Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences located in the southern forest-steppe zone of the Republic of Bashkortostan. The object of the study is the following varieties of variable alfalfa of Russian and foreign selection: Pamyati Yenikeeva (Bashkortostan), Anchor (Canada), Gladiator (USA), Bagira and Krasnodarskaya rannyaya (Krasnodar region), Progress (USA), 3384 (Turkey), Media and Krasnokutskaya variegated hybrid (Saratov region), 19790 (China), Manychskaya (Rostov region), Pestraya 57 (Orenburg region), Lada (Moscow region), Pavlovskaya variegated (Voronezh region). The zoned variety Galiya was used as a standard (st). As a result of the research, promising varieties of alfalfa were identified, characterized by high productivity and quality of forage mass. The Krasnokutskaya variegated hybrid and Anchor varieties significantly exceed the standard, exceeding the green mass yield by 19.9 % and 19.4 %, while the protein content was higher by 2.66 % and 2.73 %, respectively. Particularly noteworthy are the varieties distinguished by early flowering and a high number of seeds per pod – Pestraya 57 (the average number of seeds per pod is 5.6 pcs.); Media and Bagira (5.4 seeds per pod); Pamyati Yenikeeva (4.6 seeds per pod); Manychskaya (4.4 seeds per pod). These varieties are of particular interest for the northern forest-steppe zones of Bashkortostan, where the short growing season does not allow the use of late-ripening alfalfa varieties. A positive correlation was established between the green mass yield, the amount of precipitation (r = 0.493) and GTC (r = 0.461). A weak negative correlation was found between the yield of green mass and the average daily temperature regime (r = –0.282).