Five native and seven introduced cultivars of alfalfa were compared in a field trial under climatic condition of Mashhad.A complete randomized block design with four replications was used. This experiment was carried out for two years. Hamadani and Gharah-youngeh (two of native cultivars) in some respects were competable with high yeilding introduced cultivars (Diabelo- Verdo and XL 312). However,percent of stem in dry matter were somewhat higher in these native cultivars which may have an adverse effect on their nutritive value. Although there was not much difference in percent of leaf between cultivars but XL 312, Ramandi and Simerchenskaya showed a somewhat higher and Yazdi and Bami a lower percent of leaf in dry matter. Codi Hamadani, and Gharah-youngeh showed highest percent of stem and XL 312, Moapa Simerchenskaya had the lowest percent of stem. There was not much difference between cultivars in their percent of flower and number of internodes per stem Hamadani,Codi,Gharah-youngeh and Bami were the tallest and Ranger,Ramandi and Moapa the shortest cultivars. Yazdi and Ranger showed the lowest and Codi and Gharah - youngeh the highest number of stems per unit area.
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