alborze 1, a new crimson clover cultivar

scince 1990 research on clover has been commenced in karaj and other field stations of seed and plant improvement institute, iran. one of the achievements of this initiative is selection, improvement and release of alborz 1 crimson clover cultivar. new crimson clover cultivar, alborz 1 was primarily selected from clover germplasm received from food and agriculture organization (fao), the united nations, in seed and plant improvement institute, karaj, iran. agronomic and yield trials were carried out in karaj, dezfoul, arak, mazandaran and esfahan. demonstration plots and research-extension verifications were performed in karaj, golpayegan and shahr-e-kord. the important agronomic characteristics of alborz 1 cultivar are: earliness, high fresh forage yield in early spring season, suitability for being grown as second and third crop in cropping systems as well as tolerant to diseases and pests. alborz 1 is also tolerant to deficit irrigation and cold, therefore, it is also suitable to be grown in cold and foothills areas. this cultivar is a reliable substitute for berseem clover in paddy cropping systems. alborz 1 cultivar had very good performance in agronomy and yield trails with 30-35 t ha-1 fresh forage and 5-5.5 t ha-1 dry forage yields of 16% protein content, 60% digestibility and 70-80% platability.