Lucerne Vinnychanka is a multi-year forage crop developed at the Department of Selection of Forage, Grain, and Technical Crops of the Institute of Feed and Agriculture of Podillya NAAN. This variety is distinguished by high productivity and resistance to acidic soils and root rots, making it especially valuable under various agronomic conditions. Lucerne Vinnychanka is widely used for haymaking and hay-pasture purposes, as well as in environmental conservation projects, lawn creation, and sports fields.
The forage value of lucerne is very high: one kilogram of lucerne hay contains 0.48 feeding units and 103 grams of digestible protein. Protein content in green mass varies depending on growth phase — from 21-22% during stem elongation to 15-17% during flowering, with fiber content ranging from 25 to 39% on a dry matter basis. Due to its ability to produce numerous new shoots from the crown, lucerne quickly recovers after mowing, ensuring a high yield of green mass.
This variety exhibits enhanced drought and winter hardiness compared to clover and esparto, making it particularly suitable for cultivation in steppe and southern forest-steppe regions of Ukraine. However, lucerne Vinnychanka can also be successfully grown in northern forest-steppe areas and other regions of the country. Annual sowing area of this variety in pure and mixed stands reaches approximately 1.2 million hectares, indicating its popularity and effectiveness in agriculture.
