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Acta Prataculturae Sinica ›› 2018, Vol. 27 ›› Issue (10): 76-83.DOI: 10.11686/cyxb2017491

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Effects of irrigation and nitrogen fertilizer on alfalfa quality

WEN Ya, ZHANG Jing, FENG Meng, GUO Zheng-gang*   

  1. State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Pastoral Agriculture and Science and Technology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Grassland Science Education, Key Laboratory of Grassland Livestock Industry Innovation, Ministry of Agriculture, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730020, China
  • Received:2017-11-22 Revised:2018-02-01 Online:2018-10-20 Published:2018-10-20

Abstract: The application of both nitrogen and irrigation have been shown to be beneficial to crop growth. A field experiment was carried out during 2015 in the Hexi Corridor to analyze the changeable characteristics of water use efficiency, quality and relatively feeding value of alfalfa under different irrigation regimes (W1: 60% of conventional irrigation volumes; W2: 80% of conventional irrigation; W3: conventional irrigation) and nitrogen fertilizer levels (N1: 0 kg·ha-1; N2: 40 kg·ha-1; N3: 80 kg·ha-1; N4: 120 kg·ha-1). This study showed that the combination of different irrigation volumes and nitrogen fertilizer levels significantly affected the water use efficiency, crude protein content, neutral detergent fiber content and relatively feeding value of alfalfa but had no effect on aboveground biomass, crude fat content and crude ash content. Water use efficiency, crude protein content, neutral detergent fiber content and relatively feeding value of alfalfa all showed a downward trend (parabolic function) with increasing irrigation volumes and nitrogen fertilizer rate; the most beneficial combinations occurred in the W2N3, and W2N2 treatments which resulted in improved forage quality and relatively feeding value of alfalfa.

Key words: combination of irrigation volumes and nitrogen fertilizer levels, alfalfa, water use efficiency, quality, relatively feeding value