Enhancing range and pasture soil health, productivity, and quality using producer-focused, on-farm studies in eastern Kansas and Oklahoma

Commodities

Practices

Rangeland condition limits the ability to provide sufficient high-quality feed for cattle production. Degraded or overgrazed lands are susceptible to invasive weeds or erosion. In the 2024 assessment of range condition by USDA only 8% of the land was categorized as excellent while 25% was either poor or very poor. Producers are reluctant to apply fertilizer because of the cost and the inconsistent return on investment. Soil health in range and pasture areas has not been studied nor have practices that could enhance productivity, quality, and soil health. This is a complex problem because of the requirement to understand the impact of biological, nutrient, and energy-based products in native systems.

Providing producers with options on how they could improve their native grass production and quality while enhancing their cattle operations is a problem that needs attention. To address this problem would provide producers with strategies that are cost-effective for their operations.

Increasing forage quality through the addition or energy-nutrient-biological based products offers the potential to increase soil health, livestock production, and profitability from grazing systems. To address this problem, an on-farm study is developed to quantify the addition of energy-based products on forage quantity and quality across seven sites.

Sites:

Trials will be conducted with six producers representing a wide range of soils, species mix, and weather. These sites were selected with the producers and project team prior to the 2024 implementation and the sites remain the same.

Treatments:

Based on the 2024 observations, additional treatments were added in 2025 to include products that have the potential to further improve forage production and quality and enhance soil health and sustainability. There are 12 total treatments, 40 feet wide by a minimum of 300 feet long with a 20 foot border between treatments. Treatments were randomly assigned to each strip and the corners marked with GPS and stakes. A control treatment was added for the 2025 treatments. Products will be applied when the soil temperature is at 60F at the 4-inch depth based on the first-year observation where products were applied early in the season did not show consistent results while later applications showed a more consistent response.

The same treatments are applied at each site and are comprised of combinations of Boost (carbohydrate-based fertilizer), Liquid Life (biological), Rangefood (carbohydrate-based product), Hypergrow (biological mixture) bacteria, fungi, algae, and chitosan. In each treatment sequence there is a control.

Application rates were selected with the goal of have the applied cost of the product at $20.00/acre or less.

Forage production and Quality:

Grass clippings will be collected 60 days after application by randomly selecting three subsamples in each treatment with a 2 square foot ring with the grass clipped at 3 inches above the soil surface. Clippings will be weighed for each subsample to determine the dry weight produced and then combined in a composite sample sent to Servitech Laboratory in Dodge City, KS for forage analysis.

Soil Health and Nutrient Analysis:

Soil health analysis will be conducted from cores from the 0-6 inch depth and analyzed for the Haney, PLFA, and water holding capacity tests through Regen Ag Labs in Pleasanton, NE. Three cores will be collected from each replicate at the time of the grass clipping and combined before sending to the laboratory for analysis.

Soil biological activity and fungal and bacteria amounts will be assessed with the Microbiometer® from the 0-6 inch depth at two locations in each treatment at the time of grass clipping.

Analysis:

Analysis of the treatment effect will be conducted on each parameter across sites and combined across locations for production, soil health, and forage quality metrics. Differences among soils and the weather within the growing season will be evaluated among sites. An assessment tool has been developed to show the impact of these changes in each location on providing more forage and the impact on animal feed requirements by increasing the protein and total digestible nutrients in the forage.

Objectives (100)

1. Evaluate the effect of products that supply energy (carbohydrate) and nutrients (protein) to range and pasture across Kansas and Oklahoma on forage quantity and quality.
2. Evaluate the impact of changing forage production on soil health parameters.
3. Conduct an analysis of impacts of increased forage production and quality on livestock production, profitability, and sustainability of the range and pasture systems.
4. Conduct outreach and educational efforts across the sites to exchange information with other producers on forage production, livestock systems, and soil health.