Productive Performance of Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) at Different Age of Resprout in the Spring Season

Resumen

Objective: To determine the growth and productive performance curves, to obtain the optimal cutting moment in alfalfa, depending on the age of resprouting, in the Spring season.
Design/Methodology/Approach: The treatments were cuts at different age of the plant and the variables evaluated: Dry Matter Yield (DMY) Botanical and Morphological composition (BMC), Plant Height (PH), Leaf/Stem Ratio (L/SR), and Intercepted Radiation (IR). The stastical analysis was with the PROC GLM procedure, of the SAS software, and the adjusted
curves were obtained with the Curve Expert Professional 2.0 software.
Results: There was an increase in the DMY, leaf, stem, PH, and IR, as the resprouting age advanced, but not, the L/SR which had an inverse behavior. The maximum DMY was obtained (4,768 kg DM ha^-1) in week seven. There was a greater amount of leaf with average 52%, followed by the stem (36%), weeds (7%), detritus (4%) and inflorescence (1%). The PH washigher in week seven with 53 cm. Likewise, the highest IR in week tree with 86%. However, the L/SR was higher in week one with 2.4. The IR and L/SR presented the lowest R2 (0.90 and 0.93, respectively). In contrast, DMY and PH presented a
positive relationship (R2 of 0.98 and 0.97, respectively).
Study Limitations/Implications: There were no limitations
Findings/Conclusions: The productive performance of Premium variety alfalfa was variable depending on the resprouting age, in which the botanical and morphological characteristics changed, with better characteristics in the fifth week