DETERMINING FORAGE QUALITY PROPERTIES OF ALFALFA (Medicago sativa L.) COLLECTED FROM NATURAL AREAS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN ANATOLIA REGION AND ASSESSMENT WITH BIPLOT ANALYSIS

Abstract

The study was carried out to determine forage quality traits of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) collected from various locations in the Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey. The alfalfa forages that constitute the material of the study were collected from 10 different locations of the region during the spring of 2018 and 2019 at the beginning of the flowering period of the plant. As a result of chemical analyzes on the forage samples taken in triplicate, it has been determined that the averages of the investigated traits were changed among the locations as follows; dry matter content (DM) 90.74-94.20%, crude ash content (CA) 9.17-12.92%, organic matter content 79.40-83.03%, crude protein content (CP) 18.15-28.89%, crude cellulose content (CC) 26.21-34.17%, content of insoluble fiber in acid detergent (ADF) 18.37-29.92%, content of digestible dry matter (DDM) 65.59-74.59%, content of insoluble fiber in neutral detergent (NDF) 23.29-32.39%, dry matter intake (DMI) 3.70-5.15% and relative feed value (RFV) 188.4-289.2. Furthermore, relations among the investigated traits and interactions between the traits and the locations were examined with using biplot analysis method. According to the results of the biplot analysis, it was determined that there are positive and significant correlations among the four important traits including crude protein (CP), crude ash (CC), digestible dry matter (DDM), dry matter intake (DMI) and relative feed value (RFV) traits. Additionally, biplot analysis showed that the forage of obtained from alfalfa genotypes in Mardin-Sultan Şeyhmus (4) location came to fore in terms of the mentioned five important forage quality traits.