Mothbean: A Potential Summer Crop for the Southern Great Plains

Abstract

Low nutritive value of available warm-season grasses during July through September limits the production of yearling stocker cattle in the southern Great Plains (SGP). There has been a continual exploration of species with the capacity to provide high quality forage during summer. Mothbean (Vigna aconitifolia [Jacq.] Marechal), a short-duration, drought tolerant crop is a promising choice for the SGP. This preliminary study evaluated the potential of mothbean as a summer crop for forage, grain or green manure. Results of this study with 10 mothbean lines from a range of geographic locations suggested that crop could be harvested 100 days after planting with dry biomass yield range of 7.3 - 18.1 Mg·ha-1. Mothbean forage contained 10.8% - 14.6% crude protein (CP), 32.0% - 41.7% neutral detergent fiber (NDF), 20.7% - 29.6% acid detergent fiber (ADF), and 73% - 84% in vitro true digestibility (IVTD) at maturity. Grain yield of the 10 mothbean lines varied from 91 to 1040 kg·ha-1. The 10 tested lines generated a high amount of nitrogen (N) rich biomass at maturity with total accumulated N of 163 - 316 kg·ha-1 and a C:N ratio of 16:1 to 22:1. Overall, performance indicators suggested that mothbean has considerable potential as an alternative crop for production of forage, grain, or green manure when grown as summer crop in rotation with winter wheat. Future research should focus on evaluating mothbean within different crop settings to define its capacity as green manure or summer forage to support production of stocker cattle in the SGP.