|
W Texas | An amazing plant. Green as a gourd on the poorest soils. I’d estimate it is four times more water efficient as alfalfa but with similar nutritional value. Have seen it get 12’ tall one month after a four inch rain. And so rank it’s hard to walk through……
It will get so rank you think livestock can’t possibly be interested and sheep will get the stalk between their two front legs, walk down a 12’ plant and graze all the good stuff, leaving the stalk and the blooms.
Mexicans on the border all call it “Mexican alfalfa”.
An under appreciated fact is that sheep won’t get parasites on kochia. It grows so fast and so upright the larvae can never get high enough on the plant to be a factor (at least in the chihuahuan desert— your mileage may vary).
All sorts of stuff about it being toxic. But even the old timers have never seen it cause a problem with cattle and sheep.
| |
|
Nutritional value of Kochia?
