THE EFFECT OF THE CUTTING TIME OF GREEN CHOP OF ALFALFA ON ITS PRODUCTIVITY AND ITS FODDER VALUE

The production of food for people and fodder for animals, their quality and quantity must be guaranteed in any economic situation as it provides security of the country. In the south ofRussiathe efficient fodder production becomes impossible without a versatile use and increase of the arable lands for the main fodder crop alfalfa. In the field trials of ARRIGC after I.G. Kalinenko we carried out study of green chop, dry matter and fodder value of the alfalfa hay variety ‘Rostovskaya90’according to the time of cutting. The variety ‘Rostovskaya90’was introduced into the State List of the breeding achievements and accepted to the State Variety Testing as a standard variety in the North-Caucasus region. In the experiment the time of cutting were connected with the main vegetation phases of alfalfa, i.e. stem formation, bud formation and blooming. The alfalfa plants of the variety ‘Rostovskaya90’which were cut in different time differed a lot in a plant height, leaf formation, productivity of green chop and dry matter, contents of raw protein, fiber, fodder units and exchangeable energy in dry matter, the amount of nutrients per hectare. The productivity of green chop and dry matter in the period of cutting and at the early stages of stem and bud formation had a slight difference. The largest differences in the productivity increase were seen during the cutting at the beginning of blooming. The productivity of ‘Rostovskaya90’naturally increased in the period from stem formation to the beginning of blooming and on average produced 15.2, 22.6, 27.1 and 27.3 t/ha of green chop during the first cutting and 9.8, 12.5, 14.1 and 13.8 t/ha during the second cutting. The productivity of dry matter was 2.1, 3.5, 6.8 and 6.2 t/ha during the first cutting and 1.3, 2.4, 3.4 and 3.1 t/ha during the second cutting. The largest productivity of green mass and dry matter was obtained at the beginning of blooming. On average during the years of study the amount of raw protein in the plant was the largest in the period of stem formation both during the first cutting (25.24%) and during the second one (24.11%). In the period of full blooming the index significantly reduced and was 16.3% during the first cutting and 17.09% during the second one. The similar regularity was seen with exchangeable energy and fodder units per kg of dry matter. During the stem formation there was 0.94f.u. in one kg of dry matter during the first cutting and 0.91f.u. during the second one. The content of exchangeable energy was 10.76 and 10.51 MJ respectively. During the full blooming the content of exchangeable energy in dry matter and fodder units was 8.63 MJ and 0.56f.u. during the first cutting; and 8.21 MJ and0.52 f.u. during the second one. The decrease of fodder value is caused by the increase of fiber contents in the plants. During the full blooming it significantly surpassed the quantity required for cattle. The fodder amount of alfalfa, cut during the period of stem and bud formation, allows yielding the fodder with 0.84 –0.94 f.u. and 10.05 – 10.76 MJ in one kg of dry matter. The largest yield of fodder units (5304 and 2846), raw protein (1457 and792 kg) and exchangeable energy (64260 and 30838 MJ) per one hectare was noticed at the beginning of blooming both during the first cutting of green mass of alfalfa and during the second one.