A COMPARED STUDY ON SOME ALFALFA CULTIVARS FORAGE YIELD IN MIDDLE AND NORTH- EAST ALBANIA CONDITIONS

Alfalfa is the common and the most important forage plant in Albania. Recently the alfalfa planted area is much more than the area cultivated with wheat or maize. There is a lot commercial alfalfa cultivars present in Albanian agriculture these last two decades. Unfortunately, the most of these cultivars are very little tested for their biomass production stability. This study compare the biomass production in four commercial alfalfa cultivars and an autochthon one, evaluated at two distinct parts of Albanian territory, the central and north-east ones. Different measures of yield stability were calculated for the mean performance of each cultivar. The statistical analyses of three years data show that exist variations among studied alfalfa cultivars not only for biomass production, but for some other characteristics, too. The height biomass production correlation coefficient is positive and very strong at every mowing for all studied cultivars.