Cool-Season Grasses

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Wheatgrass, a cool-season grass, may be an economic boon to the Southern Plains states. Shutterstock/DenisNata

Vernon, Texas – Access to swine effluent or waste water can help a producer grow more grass. But a Texas AgriLife researcher says the grass is “greener” economically if it is a cool-season rather than a warm-season variety.

Dr. Seong Park, AgriLife Research economist in Vernon, says while the warm-season grasses appear to have a greater growth boost with swine effluent application, the cool-season grasses have marketing advantages that make it a more viable economic option for producers in the Oklahoma Panhandle and Southern Plains.

Park recently had the results of his study published in the Journal of American Society of Farm Manager and Rural Appraisal. The study was funded by a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant for “Comprehensive Animal Waste Systems in Semiarid Ecosystems.” Cooperators in the study were Dr. Jeffrey Vitale and Dr. Jeffory Hattey, both with Oklahoma State University.

The study evaluated the risk and economics of intensive forage production systems under four alternative types of forage and two alternative nitrogen sources, he says. The results will help farmers make better informed production decisions.

The study compared two cool-season grasses – orchard grass and wheatgrass – with two warm-season grasses – Bermuda grass and buffalo grass, he says. The two nitrogen sources used to fertilize the crop were urea or swine effluent.

Park says their model showed that intensified production of cool-season grasses with the application of fertilizer appeared to be the more economically viable option for producers in the Southern Plains.

This, in part, was due to seasonal constraints on forage production that drive up prices of cool-season grasses, he says, providing better marketing opportunities than warm-season grasses.

When combined with lower production costs and more stable yields, cool-season grasses have higher returns and less risk than warm-season grasses, which often have negative returns, Park says.

The average economic return of the cool-season grasses was $274.17 per acre, which was considerably higher than the warm-season grasses average return of $36.64 per acre, he says.

“This is an interesting result, since the dry matter yields of warm-season grasses were found to be significantly higher in the field trials than those of the cool-season grasses,” Park says.

The difference between yield and economic performance can be explained by both the higher market prices and lower variable costs of the cool-season grasses that compensated for the lower yields, he says.