Warm-Season Grasses as Biofuel Feedstock for the Texas High Plains.

Concerns over climate change and dependence on oil from unstable or unfriendly governments are creating an urgent need for ecologically friendly fuels. Research has shown that grasses can serve this purpose. Grass mixtures can produce high biomass yield with little input, i.e., much less than corn or soybeans. Low cost production and spread risk from various uses, e. g., biofuel and forage, could bring farmers sustainable economic benefits. However, sustainable profits are achievable when grass selection matches natural resources of a particular environment. For example, in the semiarid Texas High Plains, the availability of needed water for agriculture is problematic and makes crop production a high risk enterprise. Irrigation water is becoming increasingly expensive due to rising fuel costs and falling water tables, and rainfall is low and unpredictable. Under this environment, Switchgrass and Miscanthus are not the best selections, but Big Sacaton, Big Bluestem, and Giant Sandreed could be. Our objective is to evaluate a low-input, drought tolerant grass mixture that contains among other species Big Sacaton, Big Bluestem, and Giant Sandreed for biomass and forage production and quality, and compare dryland production of this mixture with forage sorghum. Three plots of 30 by 30 feet containing the grass mixture were broadcast planted on 13 June 2007 with ~15 g m^-2 of seed mixture, equally divided among species and corrected for germination test. No pre-plant irrigation and fertilization were applied, but after planting and until end of September plots were irrigated every other week to ensure good crop stand. Plants performed well and produced an average leaf area index (LAI) of 5.7 at the end of September. We consider these grasses established and suitable for evaluation of biomass production and quality during summer of 2008. Aspects related to establishment of the grass mixture and future research objectives are presented.