To decrease adverse effects of water deficit is foliar application with chemical agents such as silicon. However, there is low information on the influence of silicon on alfalfa under drought stress conditions. Thus, the current study was conducted to assessment the effect of different silicon concentrations (0, 1 and 2 mili Molar concentration) on alfalfa growth trend and biochemical traits, w...

In order to study the effect of drought stress on seedling morpho-physiological traits of alfalfa (Medicago sativa), the seeds of ten populations were collected in their natural habitats from different parts of the Fars province, Iran in 2013. A factorial experiment was conducted using 10 alfalfa populations and four water stress treatments of 100, 75, 50, and 25% Field Capacity (FC) b...

Vertical wind shear and concentration gradients of viable, airborne bacteria were used to calculate the upward flux of viable cells above bare soil and canopies of several crops. Concentrations at soil or canopy height varied from 46 colony-forming units per m over young corn and wet soil to 663 colony-forming units per m over dry soil and 6,500 colony-forming units per m over a closed wheat ca...

The objective of this study was to compare utilization of red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) and alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) by lactating dairy cows. Red clover and alfalfa were harvested and conserved as silage at two maturities in 2 consecutive yr. Each year, diets containing experimental forages and supplemental grain were fed to 16 multiparous Holstein cows in early lactation in a replicat...

Tremblay, G. F., Bélanger, G., McRae, K. B. and Michaud, R. 2002. Leaf and stem dry matter digestibility and ruminal undegradable proteins of alfalfa cultivars. Can. J. Plant Sci. 82: 383–393. Increased dry matter digestibility and ruminal undegradable protein (RUP) concentration are traits highly ranked to improve the nutritive value of forage legumes. Whole-plant, leaf, and stem samples of 27...

Two gestating cow winter grazing trials and two lactating cow drylot trials were conducted to evaluate the use of a slowly degraded protein source in corn plant diets for mature beef cows. Gestating beef cows grazing cornstalks were supplemented with .86 kg/(cow.d) of a 20% crude protein equivalent (CPE) pellet (DM basis). In Trial 1 cows fed diets containing 80% dehydrated alfalfa meal (high D...

A study was conducted to evaluate effects of alfalfa meal on growth performance and gastrointestinal tract development of growing layer ducks to provide evidence for application of alfalfa meal in the duck industry. Two hundred and fifty-six healthy Shaoxing 7-wk old growing layer ducks were selected and randomly allocated to 1 of 4 dietary treatments based on corn and soybean meal and containi...

Salinity tolerance is highly desirable to sustain alfalfa production in marginal lands that have been rendered saline. In this study, we used a diverse panel of 198 alfalfa accessions for mapping loci associated with plant growth and forage production under salt stress using genome-wide association studies (GWAS). The plants were genotyped using genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS). A greenhouse proc...

Salinity stress is a brutal environmental stress which decreases the yield production of plants. Questions rise on which of the ionic stress or lack of water has deleterious effects on plants forage dry yield. Also, questions remain on whether the K+ reduction or Na+ accumulation is more important in forage dry yield reduction under salinity stress. The present experiment was conducted to answe...

A number of traditional fermented products are prepared and consumed in Himachal and the types of traditional fermented products of Himachal are unique and different from other areas. Bhatooru is an indigenous leavened bread or roti and constitutes the staple diet of rural population of Himachal. The microbiological analysis of the inoculums (malera) revealed that it composed of a consortium of...