Biomass yield and nutritional quality of forage species under long-term irrigation with saline-sodic drainage water: Field evaluation

On the Westside of California's San Joaquin Valley, the discharge of subsurface agricultural drainage water (DW) is subject to strict environmental regulations due to its high selenium (Se) content and potential risks to wildlife. Re-use of sahne-sodic DW to irrigate salt-tolerant forage crops is attractive because it reduces the volume of DW requiring disposal and the land area affected by salinity, while producing forages to satisfy the large demand for animal feed resulting from rapid expansions in dairy and beef cattle operations in this area. The biomass production and nutritional quality of six forages ('Jose' tall wheatgrass, creeping wildrye, alkali sacaton, 'Alta' tall fescue, puccinellia and 'Salado/801S' alfalfa) were evaluated [...]