United States Department of Agriculture
Natural Resources Conservation Service		 Kansas Go to Accessibility Information
Skip to Page Content





Cool-Season Perennial Grasses for Kansas

by Terry M. Conway, Plant Materials Specialist
Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)
Salina, Kansas

Many Kansas producers have expressed interest in using cool-season perennial forage grasses in their livestock production systems. The recent interest is centered mainly in western Kansas and is due to the need to examine ways to reduce the input cost associated with the establishment of annual forages, such as wheat.

Relatively little information is available regarding the establishment, persistence, or productivity of cool season forage species for use in western Kansas. Many of the cool season grasses of interest have never been planted in Kansas, and their adaptability to our growing conditions is unknown.

To answer many of the questions concerning the adaptability of these species, the NRCS Manhattan Plant Materials Center, local NRCS field offices, local conservation districts, and Kansas State University Research and Extension jointly established cool season evaluation trial sites at three different locations in Kansas. The following eleven plant varieties were seeded on dryland sites in Phillips, Wallace, and Clark Counties:

Evaluation trial site in Wallace County ‘Hycrest’ crested wheatgrass
VNS smooth bromegrass
‘Jose’ tall wheatgrass
‘Rush’ intermediate wheatgrass
‘Reliant’ intermediate wheatgrass
‘Slate’ intermediate wheatgrass
‘Barton’ western wheatgrass
‘Mankota’ Russian wildrye
‘Bozoski-Select’ Russian wildrye
“Manska’ pubescent wheatgrass
‘Luna’ pubescent wheatgrass

Eleven different varieties were planted and evaluated for performance Each site will be monitored for a period of five years to determine individual species performance in terms of establishment, forage productivity, forage quality, and persistence.

Initial results indicate that some of the species appear to have potential for forage production. However, dry growing conditions over the last two years have significantly affected their productivity and may ultimately affect their persistence. As these growing conditions are not unusual for Kansas, this should be a good test to see how they perform over time.

For more information about cool season grass varieties, please contact your local Natural Resources Conservation Service office or conservation district office located at your local county USDA Service Center.

For more information about NRCS programs, visit the Kansas NRCS web site at www.ks.nrcs.usda.gov.

This article is also available in Microsoft Word format.

Cool-Season Perennial Grasses for Kansas (DOC; 87 KB) (Click on images above to download larger version of the pictures)

< Back to Conservation Editions - Fiscal Year 2003 Index

Last Modified: 09/17/2008