A high yielding Lucerne variety CO 2

A high green fodder yielding and nutritious Lucerne culture TNLC 12 was developed at the Department of Forage Crops, Centre for Plant Breeding and Genetics, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore and released as CO2 during 2013. It is a poly-cross derivative involving CO 1 as one of the parents. It is perfectly inherited with ideal features such as more number of non-lodging stems per crown with dark green and soft leaves and more number of leaf axils per stem leading to high leaf stem ratio. The palatability is very high as the milch animals, sheep, goats, emu and other animals relish the fodder without rejection. It registered a mean green fodder yield of 130.6 tonnes per hectare per year in Research Station and On Farm Trials which was 25.9 per cent increased green fodder yield over the check variety CO 1. It had recorded high crude protein percentage of 23.5 as against 20.5 in CO 1 which resulted in higher crude protein yield of 5.16 t/ha/yr. The dry matter yield and crude fibre content are 21.94 t/ha/yr and 19.2 per cent respectively. Its luxuriant flowering behavior facilitate enhanced seed yield to the tune of 18.2% more than CO 1.