Plant · P-090

Sainfoin

Onobrychis viciifolia

Sainfoin is a non-bloating perennial forage legume whose condensed tannins, 4-10 percent, both improve palatability and act as a natural dewormer, with trial evidence against Ostertagia ostertagi and Cooperia oncophora in calves; it also feeds bees twice a year and is one of the few forage legumes here that poultry eat directly, with documented gains in egg production. Nitrogen fixation is unreliable - nodulation often fails even with proper inoculation - so treat any nitrogen it produces as a bonus, never a guild's fertility backbone. It needs sharp-draining, calcareous, sandy or cobbly ground; heavy or waterlogged clay causes outright stand failure through crown and root rot.