Teff grass helps control weeds in organic rice

Organic rice producers struggle with weed control, but one grower has found that planting teff grass solves his weed problem.

Jerry Maltby, owner of the Broken Box Ranch in Williams, said with organic rice, sooner or later the weeds gain control of the field and he has to rotate out a year with another crop to remove the weeds.

Maltby searched for a crop that he could plant that would reduce the weeds in his organic rice field and something he could market. He said he considered several alternatives for controlling the weeds, but choices were limited because the checks in the rice field are flat.

"If the crop can't take water by flooding the checks, that means you have to knock the checks down and put them back up, which costs you more money. So, if you can plant something in between the checks and then cut it, then you're much better off," he said.

Maltby said he debated planting corn, but drainage is a problem because the ground is too flat. Wintertime crops like vetch, oats and canola were an option, but not in the summer, he said.

"During the summer, you're pretty well limited to something that would be irrigated," Maltby said.

Maltby researched teff grass and learned it is used mainly for horse feed, but it can be used for dairy, sheep and beef cattle, and it grows well in dry or wet conditions.

"And with teff grass, you can literally put it under four inches of water, and once it drains off, it does extremely well," Maltby said, adding that it seems to be a grass that has a lot of potential.

Dan Putnam, University of California, Davis, forage specialist, said teff grass was introduced into the United States several years ago, and it can be grown either as a grain or a forage crop.

"We've tested it a number of years here on the UC Davis campus. It's a fairly decent forage, it's very fine and sort of soft in its texture, and so in terms of quality as a summer forage, it's actually pretty good," Putnam said. "Teff is a fairly shallow-rooted crop, so that's actually kind of an advantage on these rice paddy areas."

Teff grass, which is an annual crop, seems to be fairly widely adapted, and it does well on the tougher rice ground areas, plus it doesn't have a large water demand, Putnam said.

Teff grass can be planted in April, and even as late as July, and it does very well under hot conditions, he said, adding that because teff grass has very fine stems and leaves, it's a good fit for the horse market.

"If you plant in the spring, you would harvest it say two or three times maximum," Putnam said. "When the cool weather comes, it basically reduces its productivity and you would plow it under and plant something different at that point."

Teff grass is not as high yielding as Sudan grass, Putnam continued.

"In fact, horse people really don't buy Sudan grass to any considerable extent, but they will buy teff because it's finer stemmed and it's a little higher quality," he said.

Putnam said he recommends planting no more than five pounds per acre of teff grass.

"Usually, we recommend growers dilute the seed with some other kind of carrier so that you have a better chance of spreading it evenly over the field—you would dilute with corn meal or something like that," he said.

Maltby said the teff seed is expensive, so he only uses five to seven pounds, which is only $15 to $25 an acre for the seed.

Teff grass doesn't take a lot of fertilizer either, where some of the other crops do, Maltby said.

Putnam advised against cutting teff grass too low to the ground, because it won't come back after cutting that low. He said he recommends a six- to eight-inch cutting height, rather than two to three inches that is done with alfalfa.

The key issue with teff grass comes back to marketing, Putnam said.

"I think some of the growers who have grown teff have been able to do pretty well with it. They figured out how to market the hay," he said.

In hindsight, Maltby said he wishes he'd have planted vetch during the winter, then put it down as a green fertilizer to add nitrogen to the soil.

"I wouldn't have had to put on any organic fertilizer," Maltby said, then he would have replanted with teff grass after he incorporated the vetch into the soil, which would have been a more cost-effective way to fertilize.

For Maltby, the teff grass is a good fit.

"The teff grass just completely took over the field," he said, whereas with the other grasses he tried, the weeds took over the field.

Teff grass is a very fine grass and it feeds well, Maltby said.

"I've used it in the feedlot as well as letting the cows eat it in the pastures," he said.

Teff grass has worked extremely well as weed control in Maltby's rice fields.

"The weeds will sprout, but teff grass shades it right out, so it still gets rid of your weeds because it crowds them out," he said.

Teff grass has several benefits, according to Maltby.

"It's very drought tolerant, so you can plant it on dry land, and you can plant it on an irrigated scenario, plus you can cut it every 30 days," he said.

But the major benefit of teff grass is, it outcompetes the weeds, and controlling the weeds is a major priority, Maltby said.

(Kathy Coatney is a reporter in Corning. She may be contacted at kacoatney@gmail.com.)