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This research was carried out to determine the physical and physiological characteristics of the seeds of the forage pea (Pisum sativum ssp. arvense L.) genotypes, and to compare the genotypes in terms of these characteristics in the laboratories of the Faculty of Agriculture of Bingöl University in 2019-2020. As a material, seeds belonging to Creakerjack, Kristal, Özkaynak, Servet, Taşkent, and TTAE-YB2010 genotypes of forage peas were used. Length, width, surface area, average arithmetic diameter, and thousand-grain weight from physical properties of these seeds, germination rate, germination time, and average shoot length from physiological properties were taken into consideration. In the study, it was determined that forage pea seeds had an average length of 6.730 mm, a width of 6.118 mm, a surface area of 34.117 mm2, an arithmetic diameter of 6.424 mm, and a thousand-grain weight of 191.96 g. It was determined that forage pea seeds germinated in an average of 1,335 days, the average germination rate was 99.5% and the average shoot length was 4.775 cm. As a result of the research, it was determined that the Kristal variety gave good results in terms of physical properties and the Özkaynak variety in terms of physiological properties.

It is well known that the need for quality roughage to maintain the level of intake by livestock is not met in Turkey. It is a fact accepted by everyone that the resulting deficit is tried to be compensated by using cereal straw. The annual roughage production of Turkey is 29.6 million tons, which meets 37.6% required amount for maintenance of 17.1 million animal units in Turkey. The quality roughage needed in Kırşehir province is 836.3 thousand tons for 181.8 thousand animal units, whereas the current roughage production is only 97.4 thousand tons. The roughage deficit of Turkey is 49 million tons while this deficit is 738.9 thousand tons in Kırşehir. The deficiency in roughage production in Turkey is much more critical in Kırşehir province. The compensative ratio of quality roughage production in Kırşehir province is only 11.6%. Therefore, increasing the quality of roughage production has become an urgent obligation for both Turkey and Kırşehir province. The funded roughage production by the government has led to a significant increase in the cultivation areas and the amount of production. However, even these increases are far from meeting the current need. To reach the targeted quality roughage production; (1) the culture of forage crops should be adopted by the producers, (2) the forage crops should economically be competitive with the other crops, (3) the farmers should be convinced of the benefits of roughage other than the need for animal feeding, and (4) pastures should be improved and used according to management rules.

Due to the geographical structure of Siirt Province, mainstay of a significant part of the population is based on livestock and crop production. Livestock is usually carried out in the form of meadows-pastures livestock. The most essential feed group in animal production is forage. At present, the dry hay amount provided from meadow-rangelands and forage crops are 130.461 and 60.177 tonnes, respectively. On the other hand, there are 101.899 of animal existence equivalent to livestock unit in Siirt. The fodder requirements of these animals are 464.914 tons per year. Total fodder production of province from natural meadow-range areas and forage crop cultivation is 190.638 tonnes but this is enough for 41% of animal existence. Therefore, management techniques must be followed and should be accelerated to the breeding studies to increase productivity in existing meadow-rangelands. Besides, cultivation area of forage crops should be increased and the crop rotation systems must be developed and priority should be given to forage crops within the crop rotation system particularly in fallow areas.

The solid feed needed for cattle breeding in the province of Van is generally obtained from pastures, meadows and feed grains. The majority of people rely on agricultural and food of animal origin in the so called province which has got a high potential of agriculture and animal breeding. In terms of animal breeding, providing the solid feed is of great importance. The production of solid feed from pastures and meadows stretching into an area of 1.359.022 hectares is almost 67.951 tons. Another area of 1.045.859 hectares where the feed grains are raised has a potential of productions adding up to 899.540 tons. There are predictably 172.000 great cattle in the province of Van. These animals need on average 619.200 tons of feed grains just to be able to survive annually. However high quality solid feed production is almost 967.491 tons, which means that there is approximately 36% percent of deficit as for the demand of the feed grains. There needs to be scientific, technical, economical and social measures taken into consideration in order to solve such demand and consumption problems of feed grains. Governmental support so as to expand the areas for feed grains and enhance the production of high quality feeds should continue and the problem of seed or seedbeds should be solved. It is highly significant that the producers or farmers involved in seed production need to be included into governmental support as well. Moreover the producers or farmers have to be informed of the importance the proper usage of solid feed sources with a rational feeding procedure so as to get the highest value of animal breeding and products.