Alfalfa inoculant program (Medicago sativa)
The world’s leading forage legume — the highest-yielding perennial hay and feed crop, and one of the strongest biological nitrogen fixers of any legume, central to dairy and livestock systems.
The challenge
Alfalfa fixes nitrogen well only when effective Sinorhizobium meliloti is present, yet many soils — especially alkaline, saline, or first-time alfalfa ground — lack it or carry weak strains; poor early nodulation means thin stands, lower protein, and wasted fertilizer.
250 kg N/ha — what a well-established alfalfa stand can fix in a year — the most of any legume in our program — but only if it nodulates in the establishment year.
The champion nitrogen-fixer
The world’s leading forage legume and one of the strongest fixers of any crop, a good alfalfa stand can fix more nitrogen in a year than anything else in the program — and feed the dairy and livestock systems that depend on it.
But only with the right specialist rhizobium
Alfalfa fixes only with effective Sinorhizobium meliloti — its own inoculation group, not the rhizobia that serve the other legumes — which many alkaline, saline, or first-time alfalfa soils simply lack.
The establishment year decides everything
As a perennial, weak nodulation in the seeding year means thin stands, lower protein, and years of wasted potential and fertilizer — the one window you cannot re-open.
The program
- Nodu™ ALF — establishes a vigorous Sinorhizobium meliloti symbiosis from sowing
- Vigor™ — strengthens roots, stand establishment, and salt/alkali stress tolerance
- Orvan™ — couples amplified nodulation with stronger stand establishment in one pass
Field-proven
Across 96 sites in 4 regions (Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Xinjiang; 2020–2024): +15.2% average hay yield, higher crude protein, up to 6.1× more nodules, and stronger stand establishment under saline-alkali stress. A well-nodulated alfalfa stand can fix 150–250+ kg N/ha per year and builds soil nitrogen for the rotation.
Rhizobial fit
Alfalfa sits in its own cross-inoculation group — Medicago, Melilotus (sweet clover) and Trigonella (fenugreek) — nodulated by fast-growing Sinorhizobium (Ensifer) meliloti, not the Bradyrhizobium or Rhizobium groups that serve the other legumes; strongly acid soils call for the closely related S. medicae. Nodu™ ALF is built on elite, region-matched S. meliloti (the symbiosis behind the world’s leading alfalfa inoculants) and confirmed against your soil’s resident populations, which are often sparse or weak in first-time or strongly alkaline-saline fields; Orvan™ amplifies those rhizobia rather than replacing them.
By product
- Orvan™ (Orvan™ Alfalfa): +15.2% yield, up to 6.1× more nodules; 96 sites / 4 regions. Amplified nodulation + stand establishment.
- Nodu™ (Nodu™ ALF, Sinorhizobium (Ensifer) meliloti): +10.4% · 52 sites; Fixes ~150–250+ kg N/ha per year; builds soil N for the rotation.
- Vigor™ (PGPR): +8.6% · 34 sites.
How to use
At sowing: Nodu™ ALF seed coat or slurry (Sinorhizobium meliloti); Vigor™ in-furrow or on seed; Orvan™ as the coupled program. Re-inoculate at each reseeding and on high-pH or low-rhizobia soils.