LOVELOCK -This past week I received a call from a rancher near Austin who was looking for an economical, high-producing forage that could be used as a winter forage in his beef cattle production system. Although there are many alternative forages and small grains that can be rotated with alfalfa, or used in pastures such as: Teff, Wheat, Barley and traditional grass hays. A forage that is sometimes over looked, but common to Nevada and the Intermountain West is Basin wildrye (Elymus cinereus).
Farm research conducted at the University of Nevada Reno's Gund Ranch compared principle nutrient/mineral content of June cut, windrowed and free-standing basin wildrye; and assessed the effect of managed fire on basin wildrye standing crop.
Basin wildrye can produce a large amount of forage and can be found on many different ecological sites within the 8- to 20-inch precipitation zone. Basin wildrye is a very tall, robust grass that has been used for winter grazing since early settlement times. Beginning with settlement in the 1860s, basin wildrye was recognized as a superior winter forage that was abundant on vast areas of intermountain basins within the larger Great Basin. Today, many of these areas are entirely shrub dominated with only remnant stands of this once abundant native grass.
The species is also characterized with elevated meristematic growing points, and because of this feature, spring and early summer grazing as well as mowing is not recommended since both can remove and reduce the number of growing points causing a decline in plant vigor and survival. However, when used as late summer, fall or winter forage, growing point concerns become less of an issue when the plants become dormant. Traditional methods of mechanical harvest also tend to remove the elevated growing points, but when mechanical harvesters are adjusted so that cutting bars are elevated mostly above growing points, this problem is effectively eliminated. Leaving more residual stubble height also reduces smothering problems for plants under the windrow.
Protein content fluctuates dramatically with season ranging from a peak of about 20 percent in early summer to 7 percent in winter. Like many grass forages, basin wildrye should have greater nutritional value if it is cut near the growing season peak and windrowed as stockpiled forage to be subsequently grazed later in the year. Because of relatively low nutrient value and palatability (coarse, wolfy stems) if left standing after the growing season, it has lost favor as a standing stockpile of forage and ignored by many ranchers as a potential forage source.
Basin wildrye characteristically responds with significantly higher forage production after prescribed burning or wildfire fire ignitions. This presents the prospect of significantly increasing Basin wildrye forage production by using prescribed fire as a tool.
The implications of this study were - Forage production was increased by prescribed burning. The quality of the windrowed forage was well above the standing crop version. Windrowing Basin wildrye provides an opportunity for improved access to quality forage in fall and winter. Increased production combined with the advantages of windrowing will provide ranchers with additional winter feed options without requiring a great deal of new input capital. However, work remains to determine actual cost effectiveness and if repeated mowing will cause any long-term decline to the basin wildrye.
Source: Nutritional Properties of Windrowed and Standing Basin Wildrye over Time, B. Bruce1,5 PAS, B. Perryman2, T. Shenkoru2, K. Conley3, and J. Wilker4
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