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Environment and grain growers' friend: Sheep offer more than warm fuzzy wool
October 07, 2004 -- by Carol Flaherty
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| MSU sheep in an experimental field east of Bozeman. MSU photo by Erin Raley. |
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Sheep are proven biocontrol agents for rangeland weeds. Using them in fallow grain fields might cut herbicide and fuel use as well as provide feed for the sheep.
Pat Hatfield has 120 warm fuzzy sheep out east of Bozeman, and they're not just grazing, they're keeping a grain field clear of weeds and herbicides, too.
Hatfield, a Montana State University sheep researcher, is trying to take the now-well-known ability of sheep to graze noxious weeds from the range and into grain fields. Sheep are a proven control for leafy spurge and spotted knapweed on the range. Using them in grain fields looks like one of the proverbial win-win situations as well: crop growers use the sheep to cut fuel and herbicide costs and sheep producers use the field to cut feed costs.
"Sheep have to be somewhere to graze, and they might as well go somewhere where they offer a benefit to people," says Hatfield.
Hatfield is in the first year of a three-year study of 120 sheep grazing grain fields at MSU's Fort Ellis ranch east of Bozeman, both for weed control and residue management. While scientifically determining the benefits of grazing fallow and already harvested fields will take a few more years of research, first year results bring a smile to Hatfield's face.
He has no green weeds and plenty of plump sheep.
Montana grain producers often have a year when they keep the fields empty of grain. When nothing is growing in the soil, soil moisture increases. But during that fallow year, weeds and leftover grain sprouts can deplete soil moisture and nitrogen. Because of that, producers generally take the tractor out and either till the field or spray a herbicide to keep the weeds and volunteer wheat to a minimum.
But controlling weeds and volunteer grain costs money for fuel, herbicide and labor.
The potential, as Hatfield sees it, is to work out the best timing for a sequence of grazing opportunities. In his minds eye, sheep might go from grazing rangeland noxious weeds before they set seed in the spring to grazing weeds in summer-fallow fields. They could graze fallow fields again to manage stubble density before winter wheat planting in fall. Over the winter, the flock might graze wheat stubble to help manage sawfly or conifers to slow their encroachment on rangeland.
"It's grazing for landscape management," Hatfield says. "There's a lot of flexibility in grazing times, and that has to be managed. The time and frequency of grazing would change each year, depending on the amount of moisture in the soil. Last year was dry, this year was wet. We've grazed these Fort Ellis fields three times this summer." That is the same number of times he had to spray or till in the experiments other management options, Hatfield adds.
The sheep seem to enjoy common mallow, a problem in many grain fields, wild oats and cheat grass. The Fort Ellis fields in May had fan weed, shepherd's purse, lambs quarter, dandelion and tansy mustard.
"All of these weeds may be palatable to grazing sheep when grazed at the right growth stages," says Hatfield.
Hatfield took samples of the Fort Ellis fields in May and found that they had good crude protein levels, ranging from 19 to 27 percent.
"Our nutrition lab manager, thinking something had gone wrong, ran standards and samples with known crude protein values again before rerunning the weed samples. The results were the same, very high protein."
Realistically speaking, there is a lot yet to be worked out, says Hatfield, matching stocking rates, ideal grazing times for each weed, and managing sheep in large grain fields. But, as Hatfield sees it, it's just a matter of working out the timing and isn't much more complex than balancing other management options.
"We're just hoping to improve the odds of profitability for the crop grower and the sheep producer. Instead of paying for herbicides and fuel, the crop grower pays the sheep producer to graze his fallow field. Instead of paying to graze land, the sheep producer pays a bit of transportation and grazes his neighbor's land. Maybe instead of paying to graze 365 days a year, you only have to pay to graze 200 days a year, or 90 days a year," he adds.
Warm fuzzies, that's what we need, not just on a mental health level, but maybe to help produce our bread and cereal, too.
Hatfield's research is funded by a competitive grant from the USDA and by the Montana Sheep Institute.
Contact: Pat Hatfield (406) 994-7952
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