News release, July, 1998, effective immediately.
For media inquiries, contact Caroline Booth Lara, Communications Specialist, (580) 224-6379.
  email: cblara@noble.org

Forage Research Goes "Underground"
It's been a dream of Southern Oklahoma and North Texas ranchers for years; a cool season perennial grass that cattle could graze late into the winter, maybe even into the spring. The benefits would be enormous; no need to buy hay to help cattle over winter months, or to set aside pastureland for baling. No need to purchase and maintain hay baling and feeding equipment. And, for ranchers who plant wheat pasture for cattle, again, less needed equipment and labor, plus less soil erosion by wind and rain. And all of those benefits add up to a really big one; less money spent per cow, as well as less labor and time, on the part of the cattle producer.

The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation has been providing consultation services to farmers and ranchers in a 100-mile radius for more than 50 years. Now they're taking their commitment to cooperators a step farther, with the creation of the Forage Biotechnology Group. This team of four scientists and research assistants will face the challenge of enhancing cool season forages through genetic plant manipulation to achieve the goal of improved grazing possibilities.

Dr. Andy Hopkins, forage grass breeder and the first of the scientists hired for the group, has been busy gathering seed and planting grass plots of a variety of different forage grasses throughout The Noble Foundation's service area and beyond. But he warned ranchers not to get too excited too early about the work under way. It's expected to take up to a decade to complete work and testing enabling the team to come out with a new or enhanced forage grass.

This research is far from the traditional plant-and-wait research. Hopkins and his two research assistants have been planting more than seeds at the sites recently. They're also burying electronic data loggers to gauge soil temperature.

"We're testing the hypothesis that soil temperature is related to the persistence of cool season perennial grasses," Hopkins said. "Elevated soil temperatures may decrease plant persistence."

For example, these same grasses grow abundantly in states such as Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas, the difference being that those states have four or five months of the year in which the weather is colder and the ground frozen for longer time periods.

"Our 'hot soil' may cause the plants to respire more, killing off growing points and roots," Hopkins said. "It's a 'shot in the dark,' but we hope this work will enable us to understand how cool season grasses respond to soil temperature."

The data loggers have a cable attached with a sensor on the end which measures electric impulses in the soil, which in turn are translated into soil temperature readings. The actual logger is placed in PVC pipe with water-tight caps on the ends and buried about 2 inches underground. The total cost of each unit is about $100. The PVC cover protects the device from moisture in the soil, as well as grazing cattle. However, the team has found one logger-pipe pulled completely up and the rubber cap chewed on and damaged extensively.
"We think it was a hog or a coyote," Hopkins hazarded. It certainly wasn't something the team had counted on.

Currently there are four data loggers in a Foundation grass plot growing outside Wichita Falls, Texas. Installed in January, the team quickly compiled three weeks of data, "So we know they work in field conditions," Hopkins said. He added the devices can be set to take readings, for example, every six minutes for 10 days. The information can then be downloaded directly onto a portable computer for future study.

Eventually, Hopkins said the team will have 36 of the information-gathering devices scattered throughout various plots.
"These data loggers will enable us to gather information which may help us to develop some cool season forage grass varieties that are more tolerant of higher soil temperatures," Hopkins said.

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(FYI; The Noble Foundation is a privately funded, nonprofit organization headquartered in Ardmore, Okla. The Foundation conducts agricultural and plant biology research; provides grants to numerous other charitable and educational organizations; and assists farmers and ranchers through educational and consultative programs.)

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