Proteins of fresh legume forages such as lucerne are highly degraded in the rumen, resulting in their inefficient use by the animal. The condensed tannins (CT) present in some forages can improve the nutritional value of these forages and of associated feeds in the diet. Previous in vitro work (Waghorn & Shelton, 1997) showed that CT from Lotus corniculatus are able to bind with and precipitate protein from a ryegrass/clover pasture, but when these forages were fed to sheep, the CT effects on digestion and animal performance were weak. This revealed a need for a better understanding of the mechanism of CT interaction between feeds. The present work was designed to measure, in vitro, the effects of CT in sainfoin when mixed with fresh lucerne
