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Forage Kochia Counters Salinity, Extends Grazing
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Saline-tolerant forage kochia
fills a nutritious, palatable niche during winter, as Utah State
researchers found in a SARE-funded study. – Photo by Blair
Waldron, USDA-ARS |
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Severe salinity affects more than just Nebraska. In fact, much of the soil
across the Plains and Great Basin tests above 7.8 pH, creating difficult conditions
in which to establish most forage species. At the same time, winter feeding
costs on Intermountain West rangelands can reach as high as 50 to 70 percent
of the total cost of raising a cow each year. Ken Olson, Dale ZoBell and their
colleagues at Utah State University received a SARE grant to test saline-tolerant
forage kochia as a winter feed in an effort to use saline soils more efficiently
and extend the grazing season – a double bonus.
Extending the grazing season into the fall could save $47-$90 per cow, according
to their economic analysis. The limiting factor to extending the grazing season
becomes nutrition; if a cow loses too much body condition, a dollar saved in
the fall could cost as much as $2 to recoup in the spring. Grass loses protein
and energy during its dormant season, but saline-tolerant perennial forage kochia
retains nutrients during the fall and becomes more palatable – a characteristic
that producers in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have realized for centuries.
SARE funded a November-through-January grazing test on former cheatgrass stands
in Utah to answer questions about forage kochia’s ability to establish
and contribute to cattle performance. While research is ongoing, findings thus
far indicate that forage kochia not only grew on saline soils, but it also contributed
to cattle weight gains when paired with crested wheatgrass. Moreover, the high
moisture content of forage kochia means that it can act as an effective fire
break, especially when compared to stands of dry cheatgrass. Perhaps most important,
researchers found that producers seeding the shrubby forb could save about 10
percent on annual production costs.
“We expect producers to incorporate kochia into pastures that are used
for winter grazing to improve the nutritional value in stands that are grass-based
and therefore low quality when dormant during winter,” says Olson, now
an extension beef specialist at South Dakota State University.
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