Published 4:17 pm Monday, March 21, 2022
BOISE — Western Juniper trees spreading across rangeland could be turned into a livestock feed ingredient, nutritionist Travis Whitney told the Idaho House Resources and Conservation Committee on March 17.
“It is tremendously intriguing,” said committee Chairman Marc Gibbs, R-Grace, a farmer.
Laurie Lickley, a Jerome-area rancher who co-chairs the committee, said there is potential benefit, given that the public land comprises more than 60% of the state and juniper has been replacing sagebrush.
Wildfire suppression over the past century has allowed juniper to migrate from more fire-protected habitat — such as rocky areas with sparse, fine fuels — into the sagebrush steppe.
Western Juniper also provides raptors with a high perch, putting sage grouse at a disadvantage and keeping rain from reaching the ground.
Whitney said some of the junipers targeted for removal from more than 600,000 acres in the Owyhee River Basin could be cut, ground up and milled into a feed ingredient. He figures Western Juniper could generate 20 tons an acre.
“We know it’s feed and we know it works,” he said. “It is a commercially viable feed ingredient.”
Western Juniper is available year-round, does not require fertilizer or other inputs to grow, and is more price-stable than many roughages, said Whitney, who co-owns Redeemer Ag and Redeemer Feed in Eden, Texas, and holds a Ph.D. in beef cattle nutrition from the University of Arizona.
It could be 10-20% of the mix in a feedlot and 30-40% for dairy heifer development, he said.
He helped get two juniper species common in Texas approved as a feed ingredient by the Association of American Feed Control Officials and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Whitney told the committee he would offer to act as a general contractor to take Western Juniper through research, trials and approval. That could take about three years. Approval likely will cost less than 0.2% of expected revenue.
“We want to make people aware of what we are doing in Texas, and that juniper is viable as a livestock ingredient,” he said in an interview. Research and approval work “comes down to funding, whether through the state, private organizations or both. Once it is approved, industry can pick it up.”
He met March 17-18 with Idaho Legislative leaders and representatives of the state Department of Lands, the Office of Species Conservation and the University of Idaho.
The Bruneau Owyhee Sage Grouse Habitat Project approved in early 2019 authorizes treatment of up to 617,000 acres of early- to mid-stage juniper treatment. Juniper, except old growth, is cut with chainsaws and loppers. Within 200 feet of a road, vehicle access is allowed and mechanical harvest can be authorized.
Lance Okeson, U.S. Bureau of Land Management Boise District fuels program lead, said work volume depends on annual funding but consistently produces substantial biomass.
“If someone can use it and does not want that to burn, by all means let’s figure out how to get it done,” he said.
Okeson said that if a proposal does not fit a currently approved federal project, it could be referred to state or private land, or could prompt another National Environmental Policy Act process such as a categorical exclusion or environmental assessment.
