Premium
Summer forage capabilities of tepary bean and guar in the southern Great Plains
Author(s) -
Baath Gurjinder S.,
Northup Brian K.,
Gowda Prasanna H.,
Rocateli Alexandre C.,
Singh Hardeep
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
agronomy journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.752
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1435-0645
pISSN - 0002-1962
DOI - 10.1002/agj2.20220
Subject(s) - agronomy , guar , forage , biology , cultivar , dry matter , grazing , perennial plant , growing season
Low nutritive value of perennial warm‐season grasses often causes limitation to stocker cattle production in the U.S. southern Great Plains (SGP). Exploration of novel legumes capable of generating nutritious summer forage is required to fill forage deficit periods. This 2‐yr field experiment compared the seasonal changes in forage biomass, leaf/stem ratio, and chemical composition of three varieties each of tepary bean [ Phaseolus acutifolius (A.) Gray] and guar [ Cyamopsis tetragonoloba (L.) Taub.] to soybean [ Glycine max (L.) Merr.]. Tepary bean cultivar Black outperformed soybean and guar varieties by producing 18–48% greater aboveground dry matter (ADM) amounts (6537 kg ha −1 ) with a leaf/stem ratio of 3.1 at 65 days after planting (DAP). The ADM and leaf nutritive value of soybean were not surpassed by the other five tested legumes, but had the least digestible stems with an in vitro true digestibility (IVTD) of 529–581 g kg −1 in both years. Guar varieties maintained a lower leaf/stem ratio (1.3–1.5 kg kg −1 ) throughout the growing season, which could limit its value for grazing compared to other legumes. We concluded tepary bean could serve as an alternate forage option to soybean for producers in the SGP. Tepary bean possessed the greatest capabilities for producing adequate biomass yields with superior and consistent nutritive value when grown as a summer forage. Future research should focus on defining management practices for growing tepary bean in extensive production settings for grazing or hay.