Sanfoin continues to show promise in the field, feed bunk

By TERRI ADAMS, The Prairie Star
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 12:13 PM MDT

Cows just don't have to burp as much and producers don't have to worry about bloat.

The green cure for both of those ails is sainfoin. Sainfoin is gaining attention in the Rocky Mountain region for grazing and haying. The succulent, non-bloating legume can handle cold nights and short growing seasons and grows taller and faster than alfalfa, says Dennis Cash, MSU forage specialist.

A relative of alfalfa, sainfoin is well-suited for the dry, cold climates of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, he said.

It grows well in a variety of soils and easily handles the calcareous soils or high lime soils often found in the area, thriving in soils with a pH 7.0 to 8, Cash said.

  
Because it has a deep root system, it also offers good drought resistance, making it ideal for dryland production and in areas too dry for clover and alfalfa, he added.

In fact, tests conducted by MSU show that sainfoin does not do well on soils which are wet or have a high water table or where root and crown rots are a problem.

  
Don Keil, of Conrad, Mont., has been growing sainfoin for 40 years and has yet to find a piece of ground sainfoin won't thrive on. When he graduated from the Montana State College in Bozeman, now MSU, he brought some sainfoin seed back to Conrad with him.

He now has 2,500 acres of sainfoin, “scattered all the way from Conrad to East Glacier. It's the only thing worth growing if you want pasture or forage,” Keil said.

Keil grows sainfoin in both dryland and irrigated conditions.

“Sainfoin outyields alfalfa on dryland and is equal to alfalfa on irrigated land. That's what I've found out,” he said.

In tests performed by MSU and Wyoming State University, sainfoin consistently out yields alfalfa on first cuttings. After being cut, sainfoin does not regrow as quickly as alfalfa and may only yield 80 to 90 percent on subsequent cuttings but the first, most nutritious cuttings can produce enough tonnage to make up for lower second cuttings.

According to Keil, he has not noticed a difference in cutting tonnage.

According to Cash, “Sainfoin is well-adapted to the hay-stockpiling system used by ranchers in Montana and the northern Great Plains. In this system, first-cut hay is harvested, and the resulting aftermath is used for fall grazing. Sainfoin at mid-bloom retains its leaves and nutrient content better than other forage legumes, and first-cut yields of sainfoin are consistently higher than those of alfalfa.”

Cash also noted that, “Sainfoin is also highly palatable to livestock and wildlife.”

Because of that, sainfoin can be used successfully to attract wildlife to CRP acres or other wildlife rehabilitation plots.

Keil said animals prefer sainfoin to alfalfa.

“They'll walk through an alfalfa pasture to get to a sainfoin pasture,” he said. While some producers may not want to attract wildlife to their fields, Keil pointed out that animals are going to eat whatever is planted there anyway. Producers might as well grow something healthy, non-bloating and cost-effective like sainfoin.

According to MSU, sainfoin's palatability may be because it has a higher moisture content than alfalfa.

The hollow stems remain succulent even as the plant matures. It also does not drop its lower leaves like alfalfa.

Keil will attribute the palatability to the high sugar content.

“It's sweeter than alfalfa,” he said.

In addition to higher palatability, Cash likes sainfoin because its protein levels are “as good as alfalfa as far as that goes.” Sainfoin's mid-stage bloom is comparable in testing to alfalfa's early bloom.

“Sainfoin is bloat-free because it has more tannin,” Cash noted. Tannins slow digestion and reduce the risk of bloat. Because of that feature, “cattle can graze it in the summer, spring or fall with no bloat risk,” Cash said, making it a great choice for pastures or for grazing the regrowth after cutting.

Jeff Russell and Matthew Landis have been growing sainfoin on their newly purchased Idaho ranch for three years.

They sit at 6,000 feet elevation and with that comes a shortened growing season. Originally they planted it to “amend the soil and help with some of the compaction in the areas that had been heavily farmed,” Russell said. They also wanted to provide some upland bird habitat.

“We weren't sure what to expect,” Russell admitted. Now, just three seasons later he loves sainfoin.

“It took well and out-competes the weeds. We have to put very little water on it and haven't fertilized it at all and it's growing like crazy,” he said.

Because it costs so little to produce, they are able to sell it for less than alfalfa hay and still make a profit. “Even with the cost of shipping, we can still sell it for less a ton than alfalfa,” Russell said. That lower price has attracted the attention of horse owners in Idaho and Montana.

“The owners say their horses love it,” Russell said. “Just five minutes ago we sent out a third load to a horse facility that has already purchased two truck loads and turned four other ranchers on to sainfoin.”

Because sainfoin reduces bloating in cows and sheep, “one horse owner has a horse that is prone to colic, and he came to us wanting to try some and see if it reduces colic in his horse. We'll see what it does,” said Russell.

Sainfoin has not been tested in horses but both horse and cattle owners who try it love it. Another reason they like it is because it is immune to the alfalfa weevil.

Cash said, “If you've ever had alfalfa weevils decimate your crop in the spring, you know what that can do. Sainfoin just does not get weevils.”

Keil pointed out that sainfoin is also immune to aphids. That pest immunity can be very advantageous to producers. Cash said, “Sainfoin is expensive to plant. Even though the price per pound for seed is similar to alfalfa, it takes about 8 pounds of seed to plant one acre of alfalfa and it takes about 30 pounds of sainfoin seed. But when you look at that in terms of cost over the life of the stand it can be a very different picture. I tell them, compared to alfalfa, if you have to spray a weevil insecticide once during the life of an alfalfa stand, you break even on sainfoin. If you have to spray twice, you've paid for your sainfoin.”

Keil doesn't spray insecticides at all and he has one stand that is 27 years old.

“I hit it with six ounces of Roundup in the spring to keep it clean and that is it. It costs about $1 an acre. If you do that once a year it seems to hold out the spotted knapweed and leafy spurge, as well as cheatgrass and downy brome, which are such a problem to so many producers, so it's really easy weed control,” he said.

Sainfoin begins growth in the spring about the same time as alfalfa, but flowers one to two weeks earlier. That early maturity lends itself well to earlier grazing opportunities or earlier hay cuttings.

Keil likes sainfoin because stands can be thickened as needed, compared to alfalfa which has to be ripped out and replanted. “You just till in more seed. You can't do that with alfalfa,” he said.

Sainfoin can also be grown successfully with grass mixes. Cash said MSU studies show that horses enjoy sainfoin mixed with timothy or orchard grass.

Honey bees also like the pink flowers and are more attracted to sainfoin than to clover. Landis mentioned they had a beekeeper see their 1,000 acres of sainfoin from the road and stopped to ask permission to put his bees on our fields. “He said they get more honey off sainfoin fields. He also said sainfoin honey tastes better,” Landis said.

Russell and Landis plan on increasing their acreage this year to include some irrigated fields as well. That way they can get a second cutting off the sainfoin. “A lot of people haven't heard about it and that scares them away. Once try it they like and they'll talk your ear off about it,” Landis said.

For producers wanting to try sainfoin hay with their livestock, call Landis at 208-456-5020. Keil sells sainfoin seed and some hay. He can be reached at 406-278-9951.

Additional information on can be found at www.montana.edu/wwwpb/pubs/mt9321.pd. Variety performance data is available at: http://animalrangeextension.montana.edu/articles/forage/Species/2004_MiscLeg and http://ag.montana.edu/nwarc/forages/forageone.htm. Results of performance tests done by Wyoming State University are at: www.uwyo.edu/Plants/Variety_Trials/08Files/Sainfoin/08sainfoinreport.pdf. 

[NOTE: Several of the above links are no longer active, but a search for the specific article can work.]
{Mr. Keil passed away in 2017 but his daughter and son-in-law are growing the business that was passed to them}