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Alfalfa is recognized as the world's most productive and nutritious hay and pasture legume.
There are over 25 million acres of alfalfa grown in the U.S. Because legumes can remove
nitrogen from the atmosphere, they require no nitrogen fertilizer. Legumes not only supply their
own nitrogen, but supply residual nitrogen to succeeding crops--reducing the need for
supplemental, chemical nitrogen applications and thereby reducing ground water pollution. As
with humans, plants are more vigorous and healthy if their parents are not closely related. Vigor
is very important in hay and pasture crops because it is related to the amount of material that is
available to feed to animals. We are developing new molecular genetics techniques with which we
can select distantly related alfalfa parents. Crosses among these parents will help improve yield.
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