Sainfoin – a perennial herbaceous plant with decorative properties and valuable for beekeeping and agriculture as a forage crop. The plant improves soil structure by enriching it with nitrogenous substances, protecting against erosion thanks to long roots that penetrate the soil well, ensuring the viability of the plant.
In 100 kg of sainfoin hay, there are 53.5 feed units, 15% crude protein, and 7.8% digestible proteins. The green mass and hay of this crop are willingly eaten by animals, not causing tympanitis when used with dew or in rainy weather. Grazing cattle on sainfoin pastures positively affects animal growth and productivity.
Sainfoin is a good nectar-producing crop: the honey from it has a light-amber color, transparency, a delicate aroma, and contains vitamins C, carotene, enzymes, carbohydrates, and beneficial substances. There are several types: vetch-leaved (sown), sandy, and Transcaucasian, each of which differs in growth characteristics and application. The plant does not require fertile soils but grows best on medium and loamy clay soils with neutral acidity (pH 6.5–7.0). Before sowing, the soil must be limed with dolomite flour in an amount of 6 to 12 tons/hectare. Sowing rate – 80–100 kg per hectare or 8–10 kg per square meter, germination reaches 94%. Plant height is 70–80 cm, growing season – 60–70 days.
Various sowing methods are used for growing sainfoin: early spring under the cover of early grain crops, early spring unsown, and summer unsown. When sowing under the cover of barley, it is important to sow it early, reduce the barley sowing rate by 15–20%, and timely harvest barley at an increased cut. Summer sowing is carried out in the second half of June-July, no later than August 1-5, at which point effective weed destruction, moisture accumulation, and nutrient accumulation are achieved on fallow fields. Sainfoin yield depends on the sowing method and rate, which is confirmed by research of the Kirovohrad Institute of Applied Plant Protection of the NAS of Ukraine.
