Planting methods and techniques of alfalfa

Alfalfa this should be relatively strange to everyone, many people do not know what it is, some people may not even know these two words. In fact, it is a kind of forage grass, it is mainly used for livestock feed, its nutritional value for livestock is very high, even higher than the value of corn.

Planting methods and techniques of alfalfa

Alfalfa is a general name of alfalfa. It's livestock feed. It is a perennial flowering plant. One of the most famous is alfalfa, which is used as a forage. Alfalfa is a perennial leguminous forage, and it is also the most widely planted forage variety in the country and even in the world. Because of its strong adaptability, high yield and good quality, it is known as the "king of forage". The life span of alfalfa is generally 5-10 years, and can be planted in areas with an annual rainfall of 250PY 800mm and a frost-free period of more than 100 days. Like neutral soil. The PH value of 6mur7.5 is the best, and 6.7mur7.0 is the best. The height of the adult plant is 1.5 meters.

Alfalfa has a high nutritional value, rich in crude protein and vitamins, and high content of essential amino acids for animals. Alfalfa dry matter contains 15ml 26.2% of crude protein, which is equivalent to half of soybean cake, which is 2 times higher than corn. Lysine content is 1.05%, 1.38%, 5 times higher than corn.

The yield of alfalfa varies greatly according to different varieties, different regions, different management levels and different cutting times. Generally, three crops are cut every year (Liaoning 2MUE 4 stubbles), the yield of fresh grass per mu is 2000,000kg, 4MUR 5kg fresh grass and 1kg hay. In China, because of its high grass yield, long utilization life, strong regeneration, and increasing production of fertilized fields, the advantage of alfalfa is completely highlighted in animal husbandry. Alfalfa is the most popular forage for all kinds of livestock. The crude protein content of leaves is 1-1.5 times higher than that of stems, and the content of crude fiber is 50% less than that of stems. It can be used as grazing land after planting for five years, but rotational cutting or rotational grazing should be done in a planned way. The more tender the leaf is, the greater the proportion of leaves is and the higher the nutritional value is. Therefore, the nutritional value of alfalfa has a great relationship with the harvest time, the water content of young alfalfa is higher, with the extension of the growth stage, the protein content decreases gradually, and the crude fiber content increases significantly. The alfalfa cut at the early flowering stage had high digestibility and good palatability. The productivity is high within 2-5 years after sowing, and higher economic benefits can be obtained by cutting or preparing hay.

Alfalfa stems and leaves are rich in protein, minerals, vitamins and carotene, especially in leaves. When alfalfa is fresh and tender, the leaf weight accounts for about 50% of the whole plant. In the same area of land, the digestible total nutrients of alfalfa were twice as much as that of grass, 2.5 times of digestible protein and 6 times of minerals. Alfalfa has good quality and palatability. Alfalfa stems and leaves are tender and delicious, no matter green feeding, silage, preparation of hay, processed grass powder, used for compound feed or mixed feed, all kinds of livestock and poultry like to eat most, and it is also the first choice for poultry industry.

The planting techniques of alfalfa are summarized as follows.

First, variety selection: the domestic varieties suitable for planting in our region are: Zhongmu No. 1, Gannong No. 3, grassland No. 2, and so on. Imported varieties are: Golden Queen (USA) Algonquin (Canada) and so on. Among them, the domestic varieties have strong adaptability and can be planted in light saline-alkali soil, while the imported varieties have high yield and high quality, so they are suitable to be planted in the plots with better water and fertilizer.

Second, sowing time: sowing in spring, summer and autumn. Spring: from mid-April to late May; summer sowing is vulnerable to weeds, so attention should be paid to weed control; autumn sowing: from mid-August to late September.

Preparation before sowing

1. Choose the place. The neutral or slightly alkaline soil with deep and loose soil layer, convenient drainage and irrigation, pH 6.5 and Mel 7.5 is the most suitable. It can also grow well on saline-alkali soil with 0.2% salt content, which is not suitable for clay.

2. Land preparation. Fine soil preparation, complete removal of weeds. When sowing in spring, it is necessary to shallow plough and kill stubble after crop harvest in the previous year, weed, and preserve soil moisture, and then turn it deeply, ploughing to a depth of up to 20 cm, and then raking and pressing to make it flat; autumn sowing should be ploughed, raked and ground after harvest.

3. Applying bottom fertilizer. Combined with soil preparation, 2000 kg of barnyard manure, 10 kg of urea, 20 kg of potassium sulfate and 50 kg of superphosphate were applied per mu. As the seeds are not salt-tolerant, soil irrigation and salt washing should be done before sowing, or sowing after rain can easily produce whole seedlings.

The method of sowing

1. Seed treatment. The seeds should be cleaned and dried so that the cleanliness of the seeds can reach 90%. Before sowing, pesticides, herbicides, rhizobia and fertilizers can be mixed in proportion to avoid diseases and insect pests at the seedling stage. Seed dressing with rhizobium and other bacterial fertilizers (1 kg of rhizobium can be mixed with 10 kg of seeds) can increase the yield by more than 20%.

2. Sowing time. Two conditions are needed for seed germination: one is that the ground temperature is 5 ℃-6 ℃ and the optimum temperature is less than 25 ℃, and the other is that more water is needed. Spring sowing and autumn sowing are the best. Partial saline-alkali land is not suitable for spring sowing, which is easy to cause dead seedlings. ① spring sowing. The seeds should be sown before the Qingming Festival (late March to early April) in spring. At this time, the soil moisture is high, so it is easy to get the whole seedling. The evening coincides with a spring drought, and it is difficult for seedlings to emerge. ② summer sowing. It is usually from June to July. In this period, the temperature is high, Rain Water is more, seedlings grow fast, but there are also many weeds, diseases and insect pests occur frequently. ③ is sown in autumn. Usually from the end of August to the beginning of September. In this period, after the rainy season, the soil moisture is good, the temperature is suitable, the growth of weeds slows down, and the sowing success rate is the highest. No matter which sowing method is adopted, it should be combined with rain or irrigation, and it is best after rain. After sowing, it should be suppressed so that the seeds can germinate.

3. Sowing method. Generally use strip sowing, line spacing of 30 cm-40 cm. At present, the technique of dense ridge and sparse planting has a row spacing of 15 cm to 20 cm, which not only increases the coverage and yield, but also facilitates field management.

4. Sowing rate. Select imported seeds, 0.75 kg-1.0 kg per mu, and domestic seeds 1.0 kg-1.5 kg per mu. The amount of saline-alkali land should be increased appropriately. In arid areas, because of lack of water, sowing should not be too dense. The dosage per mu should be low when dry and high when wet.

5. Sowing depth. Alfalfa seeds are very small, sowing deeply depends on the type of soil, shallow sowing in wet soil and slightly deeper dry soil. Generally 2 cm-3 cm, sandy soil 3 cm-4 cm, clay 2 cm.

6. Repression. If the soil is loose, it is easy to grasp the depth by suppressing it before sowing, and it is beneficial to preserve soil moisture by suppressing it again after sowing.

Management after sowing

1. Replenish seedlings. After sowing, the seedlings should be checked and replanted in time to ensure the planting density.

2. Irrigation and drainage. Ditch irrigation and sprinkler irrigation can be used for irrigation. Water should be watered before winter and after turning green; after cutting, it should be watered timely according to the drought condition; when watering the new alfalfa seedlings, it should be carried out when the seedlings grow 3 true leaves and the plant height is more than 5 cm. The root system of alfalfa is not tolerant to flooding, and flooding for 24 hours will cause death. in the rainy season, the stagnant water in the field should be eliminated in time.

3. Fertilization. Apply sufficient base fertilizer before sowing. Use 20 kg-30 kg superphosphate per mu, and apply 2000 kg of barnyard manure at the same time. At present, the bacterial fertilizers popularized in various places, such as yield-increasing bacteria, EM, Spencer, etc., can promote the growth of alfalfa.

4. Weeding. Weeds should be removed after turning green, at the seedling stage and before and after the second cutting. Generally, after irrigation, weeding can be done by ploughing, raking and chemical agents. There are three kinds of chemical herbicides: first, herbicides for soil treatment before sowing, such as dimethomide, herbicide, glyphosate, etc.; second, herbicides suitable for pre-seedling, such as diramine, Hornus, Duer, etc.; third, herbicides suitable for post-seedling, such as Pustilon, trimethoprim, bentazon and so on. However, it should be noted that the efficacy should fail 2-3 weeks before cutting, so as not to cause livestock poisoning.

5. Pest control. After growing for 4 years, alfalfa had more diseases and insect pests. It can be controlled by chemical, cutting in advance and removal of diseased leaves, but the fundamental control measure lies in the selection of disease-resistant varieties and seed dressing before sowing.

6. Harvest. Alfalfa can be cut 3-5 times a year. The period from the initial flowering stage to the full flowering stage of alfalfa is about 7-10 days, and the first cutting is the most suitable at the initial flowering stage (1x10 flowering), when the protein content is the highest; the latest can not be later than the full flowering stage, otherwise, the fallen leaves will be serious, the stem will be fibrotic and the quality will decline. The harvest time of the first crop of alfalfa is about mid-late May; after that, depending on water and fertilizer conditions, it will be cut every 30-40 days, leaving stubble about 5 cm when cutting, which is not good if it is too high or too low; in the last cutting, we should pay attention to the growth period of 40-50 days, in order to survive the winter. Dry in the shade for half a day after cutting, bundled and stored in time, otherwise too dry will cause fallen leaves and affect the quality of grass.

No matter what kind of plant you plant, you have to go through such a process, first of all, the preparation before sowing, the second is the skills and methods of sowing, and the last is the management after sowing. If you pay attention to all these aspects, it is basically no problem to get a high yield.