A promising variety population of meadow clover for northern agriculture

A new variety population of meadow clover GPF-49-3, promising for use in agricultural production in the northern regions of the European part of the Russian Federation (RF), has been created in the Federal Agricultural Research Center of the North-East named N. V. Rudnitsky. It is characterized by early periods of mowing and harvesting ripeness: the duration of the growing season from spring regrowth to the flowering phase of the first mowing is 56-72 days, from the first to the second mowing is 39-56 days, until the seeds ripen 103-115 days. According to the results of the study and evaluation in several cycles of competitive and environmental tests (2009–2021) in the conditions of the Kirov region, GPF-49-3 has shown advantages over the zoned standard cultivar (st.) ʻDymkovskyʼ in a number of productive features and adaptive qualities: it is characterized by winter hardiness, tolerance to drought, high productivity and its potential – harvesting of green mass up to 88.3 t/ha, dry matter up to 20.5 t/ha, crude protein up to 2.5 t/ha, seed yield up to 5.3 c/ha. The features of the GPF-49-3 cultivar population are significantly high in comparison with the standard forage productivity of the second year of use (y.u.) – 28.7 t/ha of green mass, 7.8 t/ha of dry matter at the level of standard ʻDymkovskyʼ cultivar – 23.4 and 6.2 t/ha, respectively (LSD05 = 4.5 and 0.8 t/ha), and genetically determined resistance to root rot. A correlation (r) of average strength was found between the intensity of root rot development in 1 y.u. and plant productivity indicators in 2 y.u.: green mass (-0.43), dry matter (-0.50), protein collection (-0.58.), indicating that the herbage with a lower degree of root damage before overwintering is more productive for the next year of use. The obtained research results made it possible to make a decision on the transfer of the GPF-49-3 cultivar population to the state cultivar testing in 2021, as a cultivar of meadow clover ʻMalakhitʼ.