Research

Background

Sainfoin is a non-bloating legume that is growing in popularity across Canada. The condensed tannins in sainfoin reduce the speed of digestion, which reduces the gas and froth buildup that leads to bloat. Including sainfoin in mixed stands reduces bloat risk considerably. While new varieties like Mountainview and Glenview have provided producers with another choice of legume for forage production, there are concerns with sainfoin’s ability to persist in mixed stands, slower establishment, yield and regrowth potential. It can also be higher cost, as sainfoin seeds are much larger than those of alfalfa.

Objectives

The objectives of this project are to:

• Assess divergent populations of sainfoin for regrowth potential, flowering time, seed size and biomass production under different environmental conditions
• Identify genomic regions and candidate genes associated with those traits
• Select and develop new populations with increased regrowth, early flowering, optimized seed size and improved persistence

Implications of the Research

While this project will not directly result in new sainfoin varieties on the market, it will create the base populations with improved agronomic traits to support eventual variety release. This supports a longer term goal of developing high-yielding, resilient sainfoin varieties that are adapted to western Canadian conditions and offer enhanced establishment, regrowth and persistence.