MILK RIVER, Alta. – Those insidious white spots spreading in western Canadian fields and pastures could be cured with a newly released grass called AC Saltlander.
Developed by plant breeder Harold Steppuhn at Agriculture Canada’s Semiarid Prairie Agricultural Research Centre in Swift Current, Sask., this new wheat grass could help reduce salt patches while providing a palatable forage for livestock.
Miller Seeds of Milk River, which has considerable experience with saline seep, is growing the seed.
Operated by Ken and Mary Miller with their son Kache Miller and daughter Elise Walker, the farm is sold on the benefits of the grass, which should be ready for commercial sale next year. The family has an exclusive contract to multiply the seed at its pedigreed seed operation in the County of Warner.
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The county, which borders Montana, is a hot dry area with salinity seep problems. It receives about 330 millimetres of precipitation a year. Bare white patches of earth surrounded by foxtail barley are a common sight.
“This county is one of the worst in Western Canada for having salinity outbreaks,” Ken Miller said.
“We think the biggest use for it is for crop farmers to contain a salinized area in a field and get rid of it instead of seeding through these areas that don’t produce much of a crop …. In Western Canada there are four to five million acres of moderate to severe salinized land, and that much again that is slightly salinized, so about 20 percent of the crop land in Western Canada has enough salinity that it will statistically reduce the yields of Katepwa spring wheat.”
The grass, which grows more than a metre tall, does not take up salt. Instead, it has deep roots that take up water and dry out soil. Rainwater leeches the salt deeper into the soil so it can no longer harm crops.
“It is a pretty practical solution to handling a nasty situation,” said Miller, who is working on mitigating damage on his own farm.
About five years ago, he seeded Newhy RS Wheatgrass, another salt-tolerant variety, to begin reclaiming a pasture. He believes Saltlander can do a better job and has some prime spots on which to try it.
Miller started the grass on two acre plots that were harvested to collect the first batch of seed last year. This year about 250 acres were planted on irrigated land with an expected yield of 200 pounds per acre.
As a hybrid plant, seed production is low so the farm used irrigation to guarantee better yields. The resulting straw is fed to the family’s cattle, which Elise and her husband Kelly blend into a winter feed ration.
They expect to receive three or four seed crops from this planting. A commercial farmer could expect it to remain as a productive hay field for five to six years. The grass creeps slowly and its seeds do not spread in a wide area, so it can be contained.
Besides farmland, the Millers think it can be used in urban areas where salt accumulates from ice control or excessive application of lawn fertilizer. The deep-rooted plants also could be used to clean up spots where foxtail and kochia weed have taken over.
The seeds are planted with a modified hoe drill or a disc drill. At harvest time in mid-August, the grass is swathed and cured for about 10 days before it goes through the combine. It is cleaned and bagged at the Millers’ on-farm seed plant and will be marketed through Viterra.
It is thought to be a natural hybrid between one or more blue bunch wheat grasses and quack grass. It is a distinct plant but its seed is similar in appearance to the quack grass parent.
As a cool season grass, it will remain green longer than other wheat grasses and is drought tolerant and winter hardy. Under favourable conditions it can displace foxtail barley from a field.
