Screening germplasm and varieties for forage quality: Constraints and potentials in annual medics
2001
Porqueddu, C. (Centro di Studio sui Pascoli Mediterranei, Sassari (Italy))
Annual medics, grown as regenerating pasture in the agro-pastoral Mediterranean systems or ley-farming systems, are an important feed resource not only as green forage during the growing season but also in summer as stubbles and pods. This paper describes the differences between and within species of annual medics in terms of chemical composition, digestibility, intake, palatability, morphology, anatomy and antinutritional factors content for both forage and pods. It also reviews most of the techniques used in the past for the evaluations of medics for forage quality, pointing out that most of these studies have been conducted comparing materials with different earliness on the basis of a single stage of sampling. Some methodological remedies are thus proposed. Several key parameters have been also individuated to be used for the identification of promising genotypes
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