Medalist Medals among IFA Alfalfa Varieties

The IFA Agronomy Division has been vigilantly working to provide patrons with information on IFA's newest alfalfa variety since its introduction in the fourth quarter of 2006. The performance of Medalist, as it is called, has proved to be a success.

The introduction of this new flagship variety has been very successful, says Vice President of Ag Operations, Layne Anderson. Management expects Medalist to be well received in it's first year great profit opportunity to IFA's alfalfa-growing members. Medalist has shown superior performance in trials and preview fields. Anderson is confident that Medalist will become the leader in the strong battery of IFA varieties.

Choosing a seed variety is a serious business with so many factors to consider in developing a new variety: forage yield, fall dormancy rates, persistence and resistance to pests. After visiting a test plot in Idaho in September of 2005, IFA crop advisors concluded that Medalist was the right variety for IFA. Brett Harman, Agronomy Purchasing Manager says, It has excellent resistence to disease and pests and produces a great combination of high quality and high yields. The alfalfa variety is well-suited to the Intermountain West.

Why Choose Medalist

The following table shows the performance of this variety relative to commercial checks in the first and second production years. Forage yield potential is presented as the percentage of the check mean. The Grand mean figure is the average percent of checks over all locations.

Pest Resistance

Multiple pest resistence is an important feature of modern alfalfa varieties. This variety has been characterized for resistence to several important alfalfa pests. Pests can cause reduced forage yield, persistence and/or forage quality. Bacterial wilt, Fusarium wilt, Verticillium wilt, anthracnose, and Phytophthora root rot, are the five diseases most commonly associated with alfalfa stand loss in the U.S. Pea aphids are occasional pests in most parts of North America and the potato leafhopper can be a very serious pest in the eastern half of the U.S. The stem nematode and spotted alfalfa aphid can limit yield and persistence in parts of the Western U.S.

Fall Domancy

A standardized test is used to measure fall dormancy is a nursery in the first and second year after transplanting. Fall dormancy is rated (1-9) with 1=earliest dormant and 9=non dormant.

Forage Quality

Relative Feed Value (RFV) is an index used to compare forage quality of different feedstuffs. The RFV calculation incorporates both digestibility (IVDMD) and intake (NFD).

Forage quality was measured in yield trial plots at the Nampa location in 2002 to generate forage quality comparisons between varieties. Forage quality samples were taken and analyzed in the first production year from the first and second cuttings. The table following summarized this data and compares relative feed value of this variety with several commercial checks.

SUMMARY

• This variety combines good hardiness, very fast recovery after cutting with good forage yield potential.
• This FD4 variety is significantly more winterhardy than other commercial varieties of this dormancy. Multiple pest resistance is excellent.
• Dark green color, very fast recovery after cutting, and exceptional late season growth combine to give this variety excellent visual impact.
• This variety has performed well over a range of environments and should be well adapted to all areas where FD4 varieties are typically planted.

For more information on IFA's Medalist Alfalfa, contact your local IFA Crop Advisor.