Non-bloating Legumes
By Heather Smith Thomas
Legumes are often important in cattle diets because they are generally higher quality, with more protein and other nutrients than some grasses. The problem with one of the most common legumes grown for livestock feed—alfalfa—is the tendency to cause bloat, especially when grazed, and it can be quite risky under certain conditions. A lot of research has been done on non-bloating legumes and on trying to develop alfalfa varieties that are less risky when grazed.
Dr. Donald Miller has developed or co-developed 100 alfalfa varieties and 6 red clovers during his plant breeding career. He grew up in Texas on a farm and went to New Mexico State University. “I worked for alfalfa breeders in New Mexico and got my Masters and PhD while I was there. I was hired as an alfalfa breeder for the western U.S. and moved to Idaho in 1984 after I finished college, heading up an alfalfa program and a research facility in Nampa, and one in California near Kingsburg. The company, AgriPro North American Plant Breeders, was owned by Shell Oil. Then AgriPro became Cal West, and then Alforex. I was director of product development for Alforex—the alfalfa division of Corteva,” he says.
“Cattle producers can graze alfalfa but you have to know how to do it. One of my breeding programs was with so-called grazing-tolerant alfalfa, in conjunction with the University of Georgia. They couldn’t put up alfalfa as hay in that climate because they have too much rain. They wanted to use a legume and grazed the alfalfa rather than cut it as hay,” he says.
There is a management guide on grazing alfalfa. “The University of Kentucky just released a guide on that about a year ago. Ray Smith, an Extension educator in Kentucky, was trained in Georgia. I used to go to Argentina to look at their grazing-tolerant alfalfas, and they could successfully graze pure stands of alfalfa, but you have to know how. When you put cattle out there, the first thing they do is eat all the leaves and then start eating the stems. That creates a change in diet and can trigger bloat. We found that if you move the fence daily, so they have a consistent diet, it helps prevent problems,” he says.
“We really don’t have a non-bloating alfalfa, but we do know how to manage the cattle to reduce the risk. In Argentina they were doing it on a large scale, and we do have grazing-tolerant alfalfa that can survive in spite of hoof damage and crown rot. We developed lines that could survive those negative impacts,” says Miller.
“I have been acquiring some alfalfa varieties from New Mexico State University that were developed for drought tolerance. If you can water the first two cuttings and then have to turn the water off during mid-summer, the alfalfa goes dormant from lack of water. It looks like it is dead, but it can go several months without any irrigation at all. It is resilient and will come back after you add water to it,” he says.
Miller has also done some work with sainfoin, which is a non-bloating legume. “When I was at New Mexico State University we released a new sainfoin variety. Sainfoin has a big stem and lots of blooms and it’s a beautiful crop. It has a problem with crown rot; if you graze it the animals are stepping on those plants and damaging the crowns,” he says.
“The best results I’ve ever seen was when they planted the sainfoin up on beds, and when they turned the cattle out they walked in the furrows and not on the plants. On those beds there was also a little less water if you had a high water table or too much water out on the field, and this made for less disease in those plants.”
Sainfoin is non-bloating and will out-produce alfalfa on the first cut but in mid-summer it starts slowing down. “Some people are using it in Montana and Wyoming; the University of Montana released a new variety about 20 years ago and there have been some other new ones developed in Canada. It is a good non-bloating legume, and if there are any bees in the area they come to those flowers. The field is alive with bees!” It makes good honey!
Earl Creech (Professor and Extension Agronomist at Utah State University) has done some trials with birdsfoot trefoil, sainfoin and cicer milkvetch. “Birdsfoot trefoil grows really well in the intermountain West and does best in the hottest time of the year. Alfalfa grows better in the early and later part of the growing season but birdsfoot trefoil loves the heat. It doesn’t get very tall so it doesn’t do as well for haying, but it grows well in pastures,” he says.
“I think the key to birdsfoot trefoil is letting it go to seed. In our environment here in Northern Utah, you have to let it flower and not graze it during September-October until it can reseed itself. That’s how you get persistent stands. One of the complaints about birdsfoot trefoil is that the stands don’t last long but that’s only because people are grazing it too heavily late in the year and not allowing it to go to seed.”
Cicer milkvetch has the drawback of being very slow to establish. It usually takes two years to get it going, but once it is established it is very productive and grows very well—and grazing livestock really like it.
Sainfoin and cicer milkvetch don’t require quite as much water as some of the other forage crops. “They usually need some irrigation or rainfall during summer but they have more drought tolerance than birdsfoot trefoil that needs full irrigation or some rainfall throughout the growing season,” says Creech.
“We’ve done quite a bit of work with these legumes in mixtures and published some of those results. Several people with USDA were also involved with some of those publications. Basically, when you grow a 50-50 mix of grass and non-bloating legumes or grass with alfalfa you can actually get as much forage production as you would get by applying nitrogen fertilizer to a pure grass stand. In a year like this, where nitrogen fertilizer is very expensive, you can save that expense if it’s a mix—and still get excellent forage production. The legume supplies the necessary nitrogen,” he says.
Matt Yost, Extension Specialist at Utah State University, has also done some research on non-bloating legumes. One trial he worked on was trying to inter-seed sainfoin with alfalfa and grow them together as a way to try to reduce bloat. “We seeded them together and measured production for three years. We found extra production and a little bit of reduction in condensed tannins, which is one of the primary measures we look at for bloat risk,” he says.
“We saw that when we had sainfoin in the stand, that first year we saw some reduction in potential for bloat, but it didn’t persist over the three years, mainly because sainfoin could not compete well with the alfalfa. By year three we had a few sainfoin plants left but they’d become sparse in the stand; they didn’t last,” says Yost. “I don’t know if that system would work very well, planting them together, but sainfoin by itself can be a good forage for reducing bloat.”
This non-bloating legume has had a lot of study for livestock forage. Grant Lastiwka (originally a Forage/Livestock Business Specialist with Alberta Agriculture and now with Union Forage), has been studying various forages in grazing systems for a long time. “Eleven years ago we started working with a new sainfoin variety and asked producers grazing higher-legume pastures to keep their beef and pasture financial records. We also worked with several Applied Research and Forage Associations in seeding sainfoin-alfalfa mixtures in small plot trials,” he says.
After 3 years of data collection from these plots and producer data from regular and higher-legume mix pastures, the outcomes were favorable; most higher-legume pastures were significantly more productive and profitable than just grass pastures. “Several producers wanted to be part of the next step of this research; we had 12 sites (about 10 acres each) seeded in Alberta and one in British Columbia—with a mix of sainfoin, alfalfa and grasses,” says Lastiwka.
“We looked at new sainfoin cultivars and the different varieties’ ability to regrow, compared with alfalfa. Because sainfoin can set seed so easily, it has the ability to create a soil seedbank. There is opportunity for regeneration from seed,” he says. If a producer lets sainfoin go to seed now and then, there is less need to reseed a pasture.
The main problem with sainfoin is its large seed, almost seven times larger than alfalfa seed. “It has only about 30,000 seeds per pound versus 200,000 seeds per pound with alfalfa. When buying seed, wanting sainfoin to be a large part of a total mix, most producers balk at paying that much money for seed,” says Lastiwka.
“The seed industry puts percent of total seed weight of each component of a mixture on the bag label. If the label says 50% sainfoin, because of sainfoin’s large seed size, this translates into only about 20% of a stand would be sainfoin because those seeds are so large,” he explains.
If allowed to reseed itself, however, sainfoin will easily maintain or even increase in a stand of hay or pasture–if given long enough recovery to go to seed. “If regrowth is grazed, the grazing activity of cattle consuming and defecating viable seed can spread the seeds (or trample them into the soil) as another planting,” says Lastiwka. On his own farm he’s established sainfoin by feeding it to cattle in mineral mixes. The seed is still viable after going through the rumen.
Andrea Hanson, former Beef Extension Specialist (Alberta Agriculture and Forestry) and now with Lakeland College, was part of that project and worked with producers across Alberta. “The first year we established sainfoin as part of a high-legume pasture mix at 12 sites, and the second year those sites were grazed. Some producer cooperators had very good establishment the first year, while others did not—either because of two much or too little moisture, weeds, or other reasons,” she says.
“Grazing the 2nd year provided a variety of outcomes. Producers with forage establishment from the 1st year were able to graze effectively. Sainfoin reduces risk for bloat, even in pastures that also have alfalfa, because sainfoin contains tannins that bind excess plant protein. The tannins precipitate these excess proteins out of the rumen fluid, preventing creation of stable foam that forms in pasture bloat,” explains Hanson.
Many producers have had bad experiences with alfalfa and bloat but with sainfoin added to a pasture this risk is reduced. Grazing research has shown up to 98% reduction in bloat when sainfoin makes up at least 25% of a sainfoin/alfalfa stand.
“With weather unpredictability, having a diversified stand allows different plants to thrive in different conditions; we get more drought resistance. Legumes have a deep tap root and can penetrate deeper into the soil where there is more moisture. Poor-producing pastures with few or no legumes have risk of depletion earlier in the grazing season.” Without legumes you may have less pasture and less quality forage for cattle.
“The sainfoin we used for this project has a growth pattern like alfalfa and can withstand grazing better than previous varieties. A concern with sainfoin in the past is that it would be grazed out too quickly and then the risk for bloat is back again with the alfalfa that remains,” she explains. This new variety of sainfoin is better for grazing.
“Our focus in this project was to have 60% or more legumes and 40% other forage species. Cooperating producers chose whatever else they wanted to put with the legumes–grasses or more legumes like birdsfoot trefoil or alfalfa,” she says.
“From grazing experience, one of the most notable observations was importance of seed set for longevity of high-legume forage stands–the need for some recovery time and regrowth—for natural reseeding. The 2017 growing season was really dry in parts of Alberta until fall. One site was left un-grazed by the producer until fall, so there was seed set and germination. We have to remember when grazing it, to leave some, so the plants can produce seed,” she says.
Dr. Surendra Bhattarai, Assistant Professor, Forage Agronomy, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Wyoming, was doing research with sainfoin in Canada before taking his current position at the University of Wyoming in January, 2025, and has started some new trials. In one of his projects he included many kinds of forage legumes to compare their various benefits and drawbacks.
“I included sainfoin, cicer milkvetch, birdsfoot trefoil and alfalfa, looking at their production and their adaptability in our environment. Some of these things have already been studied but I want to look at different varieties. I am hopeful that we will have many different varieties of forage legumes established in Wyoming,” he says.
“I started with non-bloating legumes, such as sainfoin, cicer milkvetch, birdsfoot trefoil, comparing their yield with traditional alfalfa. Those non-bloating legumes have beneficial nutritive values, but their yield is not up to the mark that alfalfa growers are getting. We have the big challenge of harnessing their nutritive values while improving their yield and competitiveness with traditional alfalfa,” says Bhattarai.
Alfalfa varieties have become very advanced, with many different high-yielding and high-quality varieties now available, but there are very few forage scientists working on non-bloating legumes. “With my experience on non-bloating legumes I am interested in taking the sainfoin research forward. My project is in Wyoming but my main object is to provide a sustainable and alternative solution on producing legumes in areas where alfalfa production is limited,” he says.
Alfalfa production is challenged by the alfalfa weevil, which is a problematic pest for alfalfa growers. “Some of the literature from earlier research suggests that sainfoin is resistant to the alfalfa weevil. I want to look into the different agronomic aspects of sainfoin, and the adaptability of this and other non-bloating legumes so we could provide substitutes in regions where alfalfa productivity has been challenged.” Producers could use sainfoin and not compromise the quality of the forage.
He is not completely confident that sainfoin will be a future solution unless there can be support from producers and government for more research in sainfoin breeding. “If we can get enough support, there is a lot we can achieve. Sainfoin could be a very good alternative,” says Bhattarai.
“In addition to the non-bloating benefits of sainfoin, it has high palatability, anthelmintic benefits and reduced methane emission. Traditionally, the main challenge is lower yield and lower stand persistence, compared to alfalfa; it doesn’t have the swift regrowth.” Producers can’t get as many cuttings during a long growing season, compared to alfalfa that can produce 3 or more cuttings.
“This is why sainfoin has not gotten much attention in our climate and region in Wyoming, but if you go farther north, such as Montana and the Dakotas where you might only get two cuttings of alfalfa, this is a different situation. I spent a lot of my time in Canada and we had a one or two-cut system, even for alfalfa, and sainfoin is a good fit there. If forage scientists can improve the yield, regrowth and persistence of sainfoin, it would become highly valuable to more producers,” he says.
He did his MS and PhD work at the University of Saskatchewan on sainfoin and alfalfa, where he learned a lot about forage breeding and has been working with sainfoin for several years. “One of my collaborative research projects with my mentor Dr. Bill Biligetu from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada focused on reducing the cost of sainfoin cultivation. Sainfoin seed is very large, compared to alfalfa seed. Forage seed producers are reluctant to use sainfoin because the seed size is so big and it costs more for seed than it does for alfalfa seed. One of my research projects in Canada was looking to see if there is any way we can reduce the seed size so it would be lower cost for seed producers, so they could more easily incorporate sainfoin in their cultivation programs,” says Bhattarai.
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