Adaption of Medicago sativa to the alpine pastoral area in Tianzhu County

Medicago sativa is an important forage grass. It was widely cultivated internationally due to its good quality. A field experiment was carried out to compare the adaption of twelve alfalfa cultivars introduced from abroad during 2009 to 2011, by measuring their agronomic characters in Tianzhu County. The results showed that, four alfalfa varieties(Platini,Sanditi,Alfalfa King adn Alize)performed well in alpine pastoral area, and agronomic characters were obviously higher than other cultivars. It was suggested that these four alfalfa cultivars were suitable for establishing pastures in the alpine pastoral areas.