Abstract

Sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia) is a perennial herbaceous leguminous forage crop with a high content of crude protein, palatability, nutritive value and non-bloating. It can be offered in the form of green forage, grazing pasture, hay, or silage. To mitigate the dry season feed shortage, the agronomic performance and chemical composition of sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia) accessions were studied in the mid-altitude of Soddo and Abeshgie Woredas of Garage Zone of Ethiopia. For the screening, five International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) accessions (No 5708, 16006, 6582, 10558, and 10556) and four wild sainfoin accessions were collected from Worabe, Albazer, Meskan Dubo Tuto and Gibie river basin with morphological variation. They were subjected to initial screening followed by field trials for a period of fifteen months per session. Among the twenty-nine agronomic parameters (for screening purpose), based on the dendrogram results, fifteen data points were used for location wise (Buee and Tatesa) evaluation purposes. The results indicated that, with the exception of leaf length, leaf width, and annual seed yield, all parameters were affected by the accession by location interaction. The highest (P<0.001) cumulative dry matter, seed yield, and crude protein (CP) contents were recorded for Worabe sainfoin, ILRI 5708 and ILRI 16006, respectively. Lower (P<0.05) condensed tannin (CT) was recorded in ILRI 5708, Worabe’s and Albazer’s sainfoin without any significant difference. During the first 24-hour incubation period, the highest and least (P<0.001) gases were produced from ILRI 16006 and Albazer, and ILRI 5708, respectively. The highest and least (P<0.001) methane gas was recorded from ILRI 16006 and ILRI 5708 respectively. The results indicated that Worabe sainfoin was superior to the result in all evaluated parameters. So, Worabe sainfoin hay mixture with crop residues can be used to enhance the nutritional value of crop residue-based poor feed resources. © The Author(s) 2024