Warm-Season Crops Offer Food and Forage Options for Western Oregon Farmers

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Western Oregon’s farmers are no strangers to the challenges of unpredictable weather. While the region is known for its rainy winters, its long, hot, and dry summers present an increasingly difficult problem for growers. These dry spells are becoming hotter, longer, and more erratic — forcing farmers to seek crops that can withstand stress while still providing food and forage for people and livestock.

For Shayan Ghajar, an Extension organic pasture and forages specialist at Oregon State University (OSU), the search for climate-resilient crops has become something of a detective story. Since 2022, Ghajar has been leading research aimed at finding multi-use warm-season crops that can thrive in Western Oregon without irrigation. His goal: to give farmers flexible, practical tools that work for food, forage, or cover cropping.

“It was important to me that growers had options,” Ghajar said. “These weren’t just experimental plots. They were real tools farmers could use.”

Climate Challenges for Oregon Farmers

Western Oregon’s Mediterranean climate means rainy winters but increasingly scorching and unpredictable summers. This shift places pressure on farmers who must maintain food production and livestock feed without depending on intensive irrigation.

The need for resilience has spurred Ghajar and his colleagues to explore crops that not only produce biomass and seed, but also improve soil health, resist drought, and offer dual-use potential. Their trials have focused on a mix of warm-season grasses and legumes, grown at the USDA Plant Materials Center in Corvallis as well as local farms.

Taking Research to the Field

Ghajar, who joined OSU in 2021, began trials in 2022 with funding from the Agricultural Research Foundation. He tested annual forages like cowpeas, mung beans, lablab, and crabgrass, measuring yield, nutritive value, and optimal planting conditions. These legumes also fix nitrogen, enriching soils for future crops.

By 2023, the trials expanded to include Maximilian sunflower, safflower ‘Baldy,’ sesbania, sunn hemp, and sweet blue lupine. Based on early success, Ghajar secured a grant in 2024 from Western SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education) to scale up the work. He partnered with Lucas Nebert, an OSU researcher who previously led the Dry Farming Project, to add new test sites and broaden outreach.

“Collaborating with Dry Farming was exciting because that program reaches thousands of people,” Ghajar said. “I knew the information would spread.”

The expansion included multi-farm trials, where researchers and farmers jointly evaluated crops across diverse soils and climates. More than 185 farmers and 62 agricultural professionals participated through workshops, field days, and consultations.

“I’ve not seen another study with this many different sites in Western Oregon,” Ghajar noted. “It was a very exhaustive and diverse set of farms.”

Standout Performers in the Field

Results varied, but several crops showed clear promise.

Sorghum was the top performer, producing the most forage across sites. However, it can generate prussic acid under stress, which is toxic to livestock. Farmers must test plants before grazing.
Pearl millet proved slightly less consistent but remained a strong option because it lacks sorghum’s toxicity risk. It can accumulate nitrates, but these risks are manageable with testing.
Cowpeas emerged as the best all-around legume, thriving in multiple soils and proving palatable to livestock.
Sunn hemp also stood out, growing tall and competing effectively with weeds.
Lablab and mung beans gave mixed results. Lablab worked well in mixed plots thanks to its vining habit, while mung beans were less consistent.
Tepary beans struggled due to pests and lower biomass production.
Teff, a grain popular elsewhere, performed poorly and requires further variety trials.

Of the crops tested, only sorghum, pearl millet, mung beans, and tepary beans produced harvestable seed. Sorghum and millet were easiest to harvest, making them promising for dual food-and-forage systems.

Mixed-species plots often underperformed compared to single-species plantings, largely because weaker crops like teff and tepary beans reduced overall yields. However, Ghajar believes improved planting rates and species combinations could make mixes more nutritionally balanced.

“All the species we trialed were multi-use — that was the goal,” Ghajar explained. “If they didn’t work out as food crops, they could still be grazed or used as cover crops.”

Lessons From Farmers

Farmers who participated valued the crops’ ability to grow with minimal water, extend grazing seasons, and reduce reliance on imported feed. Livestock preference data, collected on-site, helped highlight which species worked best in real-world conditions.

Still, many voiced a strong need for better seed availability, especially for certified organic varieties. Without reliable seed sources, scaling up promising crops will remain difficult.

Looking Ahead: Expanding the Research

The project is far from over. Ghajar and Nebert plan to:

Test more seed varieties, particularly those bred for forage or adapted to drought conditions.
Refine multi-species planting strategies to balance yield with nutrition.
Explore perennial warm-season forages that could provide longer-term resilience.
Develop clear guidelines for planting timing and soil management to help farmers maximize rooting depth and moisture access.

“This research lays the groundwork for a more climate-resilient agriculture in the Pacific Northwest,” Ghajar said. “By identifying crops that thrive with little water and serve multiple purposes, the project offers farmers tools to adapt, diversify, and thrive under changing conditions.”

Building a Resilient Future

For Ghajar, the work is about more than yield data — it’s about ensuring that Western Oregon’s farmers have real, practical options. Whether for food, forage, or soil-building, the right crops could help local agriculture withstand a climate that is shifting toward hotter and drier summers.

As the project continues, Oregon’s farming community is already reaping the benefits of new knowledge, collaborative research, and the resilience that comes with diverse cropping systems.