Increasing Rangeland Forage Production by Water Harvesting

Abstract

Effects of additional water, provided from adjacent water-collecting areas, on forage production of blue panicgrass (Panicum antidotale Retz.) were assessed. Applying paraffin for water repellency of runoff areas increased water for use on the collecting areas. In this 3-year study, more than 2,000 kg/ha/year forage was harvested with rainfall of less than 130 mm and collecting-area runoff from 14 summer events in 1974 and from 18 summer events each in 1975 and 1976. Forage production from control plots averaged only 200 kg/ha/year the second and third years. Forage yield was increased about 16-fold over that of the control using a waxed-soil runoff area two times the crop growing area. Adjusting yields for the size of the bare runoff areas, the average yield increase for the system was still five times greater than that which would have been obtained from an uninterrupted planting of grass. Water-use efficiencies for this technique were comparable to those for irrigated grass.