Published in 2023
By: Sophia Nowers, Intern, OSU Small Farms Program
On August 10th, the Warm Season Forage Field Day was held at the USDA Plant Materials Center near Corvallis, Oregon. The 15 attendees toured the trial plots of safflower, lablab, sweet blue lupin, Bermuda grass and other species while Dr. Shayan Ghajar spoke about his research. He is growing annual and perennial warm season forage species in both irrigated and dry farmed plots to test their suitability for Oregon’s summers. Dr. Ghajar said that currently the number of warm season forage species used in Oregon are limited due to a lack of research. Through his work, he hopes to expand the options for producers with forage-based operations, helping them adapt to the weather extremes and uncertainties caused by climate change. So far this season, he has experienced the most success in the trial plot where he planted all nine warm season forage species he is researching together, suggesting that species diversity increases forage yields.
Please reach out to Dr. Shayan Ghajar at [email protected] if you are a forage grower who would like to trial the forage species being researched. Thank you to Dr. Ghajar for putting on this event, and we look forward to having it again next year!