Researchers from the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture have received a grant to study native warm-season perennial grasses for organic livestock feed production. The $750,000 grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture will fund four years of research for Sindhu Jagadamma, associate professor of soil science in the Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science.
The project will target the southeastern United States, where tall fescue grass is the dominant cattle feed. While this cool-season grass grows well in the fall and spring, production and quality diminish during the summer. Jagadamma’s project will focus on integrating warm-season grasses organically in the tall fescue systems and studying the agronomic and ecological implications of such organic forage systems. This is built off the research from Patrick Keyser, professor in the Department of Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries. His research focused on warm-season and cool-season grass integration, and this project will expand on that with organic methods.
“Native warm-season grasses out-perform other grass species in soil organic matter accumulation, nutrient-use efficiency, climate resiliency and many other ways, Jagadamma said, “So, achieving these ancillary benefits in addition to providing high-quality animal feed by introducing them is a win-win strategy, and I am very passionate about investigating these ecological benefits.”
Over the course of four years, Jagadamma’s team will start on-station and on-farm trials in Tennessee and Arkansas to study forage yield and nutritive value, weed suppression, soil health and economic benefits, then work with University of Tennessee and University of Arkansas Extension to inform producers of their findings.