As the sustained increase in dairy production throughout the Southern High Plains region of West Texas and New Mexico continues to stretch the area’s Ogallala Aquifer beyond capacity, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists have looked to the efforts of Indian cattle farmers for an attempt to lower the area’s water usage.

The potential solution involves replacing corn silage and alfalfa, the main dietary components for dairy cattle, with finger millet (Eleusine coracana), a drought-resistant crop used for cattle feed in India.

The idea belongs to Prasanna Gowda, an Agricultural Research Service (ARS) engineer and Indian native, who knew that Indian dairy cattle are raised on finger millet, and that milk from finger millet-fed cows there sells for a higher price.

Gowda and his colleagues researched the idea by growing five finger millet varieties in Bushland for 120 days, selecting plants of each variety based on crude protein, fiber content, and other nutritional qualities, and comparing the finger millet’s nutritional qualities to those of corn and sorghum from neighboring plots.

The findings revealed that finger millet had higher levels of potassium than corn, twice as much calcium, four to five times as much phosphorus, comparable levels of protein, fiber and total digestible nutrients, and used less water than corn and sorghum.

The research could be used as evidence of finger millet’s potential as a viable feed source for dairy cattle, and that supplementing the crop with corn could help save water in areas where water is limited, Gowda says.