December 14, 2007

Contact: Julie Hansen, Cornell University, 607-255-5043

Most Recent Forage & Grass Variety Yield Data Now Online for NNY Farmers

Data from 2007 yield trials for nearly 200 varieties of forage crops, including alfalfa, is now available from the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program at www.nnyagdev.org. A nine-page report, detailing forage field trials for alfalfa, red clover, birdsfoot trefoil, orchardgrass, timothy, bromegrass, ryegrass, fescue, festulolium, and Kentucky bluegrass, includes special notes for Northern New York farmers on the trials at the W.H. Miner Agricultural Research Institute in Chazy, NY

In each trial at five sites a group of top-yielding cultivars was identified. Researcher Associate Julie Hansen with the Cornell University Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics notes that the alfalfa cultivars are recommended for resistance or high resistance to four diseases of the crop. She says, �An important consideration when selecting alfalfa cultivars is that those with fall dormancy ratings higher than 4 may have unacceptable winter-hardiness for New York, particularly Northern New York.�

Hansen adds, �The cultivars for the trials were from the new and improved cultivars offered by plant breeders and seed companies for improved agronomic characteristics such as yield, disease and insect resistance, and forage quality. Trials are planted each spring with the most advanced genetics in forage varieties available to producers.�

The complete New York Forage Legume and Grass Variety Yield Trials Summary for 2007 Season Totals report and specific reports for the trials at Chazy, NY, are online at www.nnyagdev.org.  # # #