Potlatch, Idaho
June 17, 2005
One of the most attractive aspects of Kentucky bluegrass as
a crop, its long life, also makes it a challenging research
subject, University of Idaho
scientist Donn Thill said.
Thill said he wanted a recent
research tour of the 26-acre study site at Hatter Creek
Ranch near Potlatch to leave participants with two key
messages:
-
no one silver bullet is likely
to snuff out controversy about bluegrass field burning
-
with just three years of
research, it is too soon to draw scientific conclusions.
Thill, a UI professor of weed
science, serves as the project leader for the most
comprehensive study to date of bluegrass seed production. To
provide an accurate understanding of grass seed production,
the study, which began in 2002, will take at least another
three years.
"It is important to point out
that we're dealing with a perennial crop," Thill said during
the June 9 tour. That means gathering enough years of
information to spot trends and following them for the long
term.
The project receives
approximately $200,000 a year in funding, primarily from the
U.S. Department of Agriculture. Partners include the Idaho
State Department of Agriculture, Washington Turfgrass Seed
Commission, the bluegrass seed industry and producers, the
Nez Perce and Coeur d'Alene tribes and U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency.
The study seeks alternatives
to field burning, a controversial practice that removes
straw after harvest. Grass seed producers say they can't
make a profit on the crop without burning. Opponents say
field burning endangers public health.
Fire stimulates seed
production by removing straw and thatch and exposing the
bluegrass plant's crown to sunlight while providing a burst
of nutrients from the ashes.
Attempts to create the same
effect without conventional field burning range from using
herbicides or mowing to suppress and rejuvenate the stand
during a fallow year, grazing the straw with cattle,
mechanically removing the straw and baling the straw before
burning.
John Holman, UI extension
research scientist, said the herbicide Rely is now available
for grass seed producers interested in testing the chemical
fallow method, and the herbicide Everest is now available to
control annual grasses during the establishment year.
Other UI researchers outlined
work to understand how burning, mowing or other methods to
remove straw affect insect populations.
Another new aspect of the
study focuses on using a bacterial strain to hasten the
breakdown of bluegrass straw. The bacterial strain was
patented by the University of Idaho after tests on golf
courses showed it reduced the buildup of thatch and fungal
pathogens.
UI rural sociologist J.D.
Wulfhorst also reported on preliminary findings of a 2004
survey of northern Idaho residents about their attitudes
toward field burning.
The survey showed that more
than 60 percent of rural residents supported the continued
use of burning. Support waned among urban residents but 52
percent of them said they supported the practice. Among all
those responding to the survey, nearly a third indicated
they supported partial reductions in the use of burning.
Thirteen percent of respondents from across the region
supported a total ban on burning.
Within the 10 northern
counties surveyed, support for burning was weakest among
Boundary and Bonner county residents and those in the
northern reaches of Kootenai and Shoshone counties.
Support for field burning was
strongest among residents of Benewah, Clearwater and Idaho
counties and rural portions of Nez Perce and Latah counties.
Sherman Takatori, Agricultural
Bureau chief for the Idaho State Department of Agriculture
burning program manager, also participated in the tour. He
said that during the past two years the state agency and
grass seed producers have grown more adept at managing smoke
from field burning to lessen its impacts on residents.
The number of calls has declined to a hotline established by
the agency to address complaints, Takatori said.
The Hatter Creek Ranch plots
are also fenced to test whether cattle can be used to graze
off the straw remaining after harvest. Animal Science
Professor Carl Hunt said early results show the practice
won't be for the soft-hearted. The cattle need to remain on
the field to graze off the last bit of residue which means
they will be hungry for the last couple of days of grazing,
he said.
Hunt said cattle producers
would have to recognize that their animals were tools
serving bluegrass growers' needs.
The bluegrass team held
another field tour June 2 at study cooperator Chris Ramsey's
farm. Research there has focused on modified burning regimes
and past research evaluated various herbicides in an
alternating fallow-and seed-production-year cropping system.
Results of that study found Rely worked the best of all
herbicides, Holman said.
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