Of all the vegetation on the planet, foxtail barley is one species that Ken Miller cannot learn to love.
“I despise foxtail barley for all the damage it does. To pasture land but particularly to hay (land),” said Miller, a seed grower in Milk River, Alta.
“Hay that has foxtail in it won’t be accepted by cows… It can (cause) lockjaw and infection. It does a lot of financial damage.”
Harold Steppuhn, a research scientist with Agriculture Canada in Swift Current, Sask., has developed a green wheatgrass that can suppress foxtail barley on saline pastures, hayfields and other areas.
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During a presentation at Agriculture Canada’s research centre in Brandon in early September, Steppuhn explained that trials conducted in Alberta have shown that AC Saltlander, a hybrid of Eurasian bluebunch wheatgrasses and quackgrass, can outcompete foxtail barley on moderately and severely saline soils.
“You as producers, you might have some of that land base that is not as productive (because of foxtail barley)… this may give you an opportunity to reclaim some of those lands,” said Allen Iwaasa, Steppuhn’s colleague at Agriculture Canada in Swift Current, who also presented information on AC Saltlander in Brandon.
Steppuhn and Iwaasa presented the results of trials, conducted at Oyen, Alta., and Warner, Alta., to evaluate AC Saltlander’s ability to suppress foxtail barley.
The researchers concluded the green wheatgrass outperformed competitors such as northern wheatgrass, western wheatgrass and alfalfa based on biomass production and the number of foxtail plants per square metre.
At Agriculture Canada’s Swift Current research station, Iwaasa and Steppuhn initiated a project to evaluate the grazing and forage performance of AC Saltlander versus smooth bromegrass over several years.
They used six pastures, approximately three acres in size, Iwassa said. “We had three pastures with smooth brome and three pastures with Saltlander.”
Although data from the trial was skewed because of the drought conditions in 2009, AC Saltlander proved to be palatable for livestock and performed as well or better than smooth bromegrass.
Data from the trial showed that AC Saltlander produced about 1,200 kilograms of dry matter per acre, while smooth brome produced slightly less. The cattle’s average daily gain on the AC Saltlander pastures was consistently higher than average daily gain on the smooth bromegrass pastures. The average daily gain on the AC Saltlander was just over one kg per day.
Iwaasa said AC Saltlander tolerates saline soils, helps combat foxtail barley and its grazing and forage production is comparable to smooth bromegrass.
The price is high at around $6 per pound.
“We’ve heard those comments before,” said Miller, the seed grower near Milk River, who is the only person in Canada producing AC Saltlander seed. “It’s the nature of the seed itself. It’s a hybrid between two different wheat grasses. Because of the hybrid nature, the seed production is really low in this crop.”
As an example, Miller said ACSaltlander produces only a third as much seed as intermediate wheatgrass.
“It would rather produce itself vegetatively, than with seeds,” he said.
Miller has worked with industry to develop a Saltlander forage grass mix that sells at a lower price. The mix is a combination of AC Saltlander, slender wheatgrass and tall fescue.
