The results of the development of the promising sainfoin varieties adapted for various conditions in the south of Russia

The main feed crops are perennial legumes, among which sainfoin is of special importance. When developing the new sainfoin varieties, there are several directions, but the main ones are selection for green mass and seeds productivity, and quality of feed. Based on this, the purpose of the current work was to study the feed, seed productivity and feed quality of the promising sainfoin samples. The study was carried out as part of the competitive variety testing of sainfoin sown in 2017 during one cycle (two years of use). The objects of the study were 22 sainfoin samples developed in the FSBSI “Agricultural Research Center “Donskoy”. The sowing was pure and early spring. The area of the plots was 25 m2, in six-fold repetitions, the placement was systematic with a shift. The seeding rate was 5 million germinated seeds per hectare. The estimation of sainfoin samples was carried out according to the productivity of green mass and seeds, as well as their biochemical parameters. In all the years of the study, 6 studied sainfoin samples reliably exceeded the standard in green mass productivity. They are the samples “Sin 15/93”, “Sin 6/95”, “Sin 4/2010”, “Sin 2/2004”, “Sin 3/2004”, “Sin 9/97”, which formed the green mass productivity from 26.7 t/ha to 33.3 t/ha in 2018, and from 24.7 t/ha to 29.6 t/ha in 2019, with a standard productivity of 24.6 t/ha and 22.6 t/ha, respectively. In the trial the dry matter content of the standard variety “Zernogradsky 2” was 22.4%, the 9 samples' dry matter content ranged from 23.3% to 24.4%, which was significantly larger than that of the standard variety. The raw protein percentage in the studied sainfoin samples varied from 15.55-19.62%. Almost all the studied sainfoin samples formed the seed productivity from 1.02 t/ha to 1.29 t/ha.