By Nick Paulson
A new sainfoin performs well with alfalfa, grows back quickly and perseveres through several harvests a year, giving Western U.S. and Canadian hay growers and graziers another forage option.
The variety Mountainview was developed by Agriculture Canada to persist when seeded with alfalfa and help control bloat. But the sainfoin doesn’t just hold its own with alfalfa; it thrives, says its developer.
In some trial locations, Mountainview yielded as much or better than AC Longview, the alfalfa variety it was compared with, says Surya Acharya, the forage breeder who led its development. Traditional sainfoins have produced only about three-quarters of alfalfa’s average yield, according to Acharya.
In a three-year trial in Lethbridge, Alberta, pure stands of Mountainview averaged about 6.25 tons/acre compared to 6.08 tons/acre for AC Longview. Mountainview yielded about 1.15 ton/acre more than the older Nova sainfoin variety to which it was compared.
Mixed stands of Mountainview and alfalfa yielded about 6.6 tons/acre. The new sainfoin tests 24% protein, on average.
Sainfoin is a palatable legume suited well to rangelands with neutral or slightly alkaline soils, like those in the western U.S. and Canada. It struggles with acidic soils or regions with wet soils or high water tables, such as much of the southern and Midwestern U.S., the forage breeder says.
The legume has the potential to prevent bloat in cattle and other ruminants. Its high concentrations of condensed tannins bind to proteins in the rumen to prevent rapid digestion and gas-trapping foam formation.
But older varieties haven’t been widely used, mostly because they regrow slowly and don’t persist when paired with alfalfa.
Mountainview’s regrowth is even faster than alfalfa’s; Acharya is working to better match the two legumes’ growth rates.
Click here to see more...