THE ALFALFA CATALOG SOFTWARE PACKAGE

Due to modern plant breeding methods, agricultural producers have many cultivars available for many different species. Consequently, it is o ften difficult to recommend a cultivar for a particular growing area. A list of alfalfa cultivars, germplasms, and breeding lines available was published. However, due to the large number of entries in these pu blications finding pertinent information about a cultivar, breeding li ne, or germplasm was tedious. The objectives of this project were to ( i) develop a computer program to access the alfalfa information in the original database, and (ii) update the database to include those alfa lfa cultivars, breeding lines, and germplasms released through late 19 92. A computer program was written using Microsoft QuickBasic, ver. 4. 5. The original alfalfa database was converted to ASCII format. The re sulting software package is entitled the ALFALFA CATALOG ver. 1.0. Thr ee program files and four data files comprise the ALFALFA CATALOG soft ware package. Users may rapidly search the database and retrieve entri es by cultivar name, experimental designation, or germplasm. We also w rote a routine to print a list of all cultivars or germplasms that hav e a specific combination of traits. These search capabilities will all ow plant breeders, extension agents, and consultants rapid access to p ertinent alfalfa data. Currently, the ALFALFA CATALOG has 752 entries for cultivars and breeding lines, and 144 entries for germplasms. The database will be updated yearly. In its present form, the ALFALFA CATA LOG is probably the most complete compilation of alfalfa cultivars, br eeding lines, and germplasms available.