North Dakota - Bismarck Plant Materials Center Highlights

Increase grazing resources and improved wildlife habitat

Perennial Grasses Managed as Stockpiled Forage- Fact sheet promoting selected grasses and their forage attributes when used to extend the grazing season. Grass regrowth and season-long forage samples were analyzed for quality during dormant growth periods to compare grass species. This information can assist land owners in expanding their grazing season while reducing forage supplementation of grazing livestock.
`Sholty’ Yellow Flowered Alfalfa is a newly released late maturing variety of alfalfa. It is drought tolerant fibrouos rooted variety. `Sholty’ provides excellent livestock forage and wildlife habitat.

Enhance wildlife resources

Seeding Techniques for Pollinator Habitat Establishment. A current study focused on different seeding techniques for establishing diverse pollinator plantings.
Prairie Harvest plum is an early flowering shrub that attracts large amounts of pollinators in the spring and bountiful fruit harvest in the fall. It is commercially available for conservation plantings.

Maintain and improve productivity of agricultural lands.

Yield and Quality of Perennial Cool-Season Grasses on Saline Soils in the Northern Great Plains- A technical publication that evaluates 11 grasses across saline gradients ranging from 3 to 21 dS/m. Forage production and quality information were gathered to assist land managers in their planting decisions on perennial grass selection when revegetating saline affected sites.
Forty-seven improved cooperative plant releases are commercially available to landowners. These releases supply conservation plants and seed for critically needed conservation practices in the Northern Great Plains and the Upper Midwest Regions.