Roundup Ready (RR) alfalfa, expected in 2004 or 2005, will yield as well as other top varieties.

That's according to Mark McCaslin, president of Forage Genetics International, West Salem, WI. McCaslin presented a RR alfalfa progress report at the recent National Alfalfa Symposium in Las Vegas.

In field trials in four states, elite RR lines were sprayed three times with very high rates of Roundup Ultra - 4 quarts/acre in June and July, and 2 quarts/acre in October. Yields were the same as from unsprayed non-RR plots where weeds were removed with cultivation, said McCaslin.

Yields also were similar in plots where RR and non-RR plants were unsprayed, he added.