Minneapolis ? Mixed into Don Koster’s recipe for happy cows and calves is a forage crop with a funny name.

Triticale has been around for more than a century, but it hasn’t yet snared mass appeal.

Some say the crop’s potential and versatility will fetch it some clout on both farms and ranches.

“For the last three years, I’ve had no calves that got sick on me. That’s the big economics right there,” said Koster, owner of Rainbow Ranch and Farming Co. in Ottawa County.

“The health aspect of it is phenomenal,” he said.

So is the profit potential, according to Carlyle Thompson, a retired soil scientist from Lenexa. He included triticale research during his 40-year career at the Kansas State University Agricultural Research Center in Hays.

The crop — a hybrid produced by crossing wheat and rye — can be used for forage and hay and as a feed grain for livestock.

“The whole concept of growing triticale or rye is better than a license to steal,” Thompson said.

Triticale has up to three times the profit potential as wheat, he said. It flourishes on less moisture than corn and possesses the same feed benefits with lower costs.

“Even a guy who doesn’t have cattle could rent it out as pasture,” Thompson said.

Tomas Ramos, left, and Don Koster, owner of Rainbow Ranch and Farming Co., share jokes as Ramos fills part of the drill with turnip seed. Koster, who was pictured Aug. 27 at his farm south of Minneapolis, seeds triticale and turnips together to graze cattle on.

But in 2002, the U.S. Census of Agriculture reported that Kansas farmers planted just 6,588 acres of triticale, compared to near 10 million acres of wheat planted annually.

It’s such a minor crop that Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service doesn’t track triticale.

“Farmers are stuck in tradition,” Thompson said. “The innovative farmers are trying it.”

Farmers in Texas, Oklahoma and Nebraska also are showing more interest in the grain, which sports a kernel similar in shape to wheat but larger.

Some farmers in the western third of Kansas are planting triticale. Once more are convinced, Thompson said, this state could become the “small grain forage capital of the nation.”

But that would require a major shift from corn as a primary feed grain.

Don Koster, owner of Rainbow Ranch and Farming Co., holds turnip seed, left, and triticale.

“It’s almost like a status symbol, ‘I’m growing corn. Look at me.'” he said. “Well, who cares? The money that you take to the bank is more important.”

Tom Maxwell, Salina, a district agricultural extension agent, said triticale makes excellent hay and has proven more profitable when fed to cattle.

“It’s something we need to take a look at,” he said.

Ray Negus, manager of CK Ranch in Brookville, said triticale could be planted in late summer or early fall, and it’s more reliable than wheat. Wheat isn’t drilled in these parts until late September. Triticale also goes into dormancy later than wheat, Thompson said, allowing it to be grazed longer.

“We plant (triticale) earlier, and we’re pretty much guaranteed some fall grazing,” Negus said. “With wheat, you have to plant later. You can’t count on it.”