Sainfoin is a very good fodder plant which was cultivated in every temperate climate region until not long ago. Giovanni Pascoli remembers it in the poem 'Romagna': "... and the ox ruminates in its dark stables / its laborious sainfoin".
Now that cattle-breeding has lost importance it's difficult to find sainfoin cultivations, but it's easy to recognise its bright pink flowers in the lower mountain meadows.