When something sounds too good to be true, it generally is. But BioWest Ag Solutions doesn’t promise the overnight eradication of cheatgrass with its MB906; rather, it promises to level the playing field in which cheat grows to give native plants a fighting chance.

That isn’t too good to be true, but it’s plenty good enough.

Cheatgrass came to the United States more than 100 years ago, probably from southern Europe. It’s prolific — each plant can produce 300 or so seeds and there can be more than 1,000 plants per acre — it’s hard on everything from cattle to family dogs, and it’s tough. It generally germinates in the fall, then “cheats” native plants of water and nutrients by being the first plant up in the spring.

Moreover, cheat dies quickly, leaving in its wake a mat of dried plants ready-made to stoke summer range fires. Too, because it matures and dries so early in the year, it extends the fire season on the front end.

Because there’s so much cheat, particularly in the intermountain West, and because it’s so damaging to native plants, crops and animals, finding a way to control the stuff is a very big deal. One scientist, Ann C. Kennedy of the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service in Washington state, has been working to do just that for nearly 30 years. She discovered a native microbe, D7, several years ago that’s effective against cheat, though producing enough of it to be sold commercially has proven tricky.

Meanwhile, BioWest, which specializes in helping farmers and ranchers keep soil healthy through “the best elements of naturally occurring organic fertilizers, conventional fertilizers and modern science,” worked with Kennedy to develop MB906, a cousin of D7, said Dave Lister, BioWest’s Nampa, Idaho, operations manager.

MB906 is considered a soil amendment, Lister said, improving the soil, but for now, at least, not marketed as an inoculant specifically aimed at cheatgrass. If the Environmental Protection Agency approves, however, that could change. It’s a living microbe, so among the first difficulties to be overcome is keeping it alive.

BioWest apparently has done that, and Lister said it expects to produce some 6,000 gallons of microbes and the solution in which they live every three days. It will be sprayed, probably by truck or even by airplane, in the fall because it thrives in cold soil. It must be plowed in fairly quickly, and, with a bit of moisture, will begin colonizing.

It doesn’t kill cheat (a fungus with the uncommon name of Black Fingers of Death can do some of that), but it does stunt its growth and choke out new seeds. The first spring after it’s applied, a landowner will see only about half as many cheatgrass plants as the year before, and they’ll be much smaller. Throw a herbicide into the mix, and things look even better, Lister said.

Moreover, cheatgrass isn’t the only troublesome plant on which MB906 works, Lister said. It’s also effective against medusahead rye, another invasive plant that’s been reported in the state for well over 100 years.

Like cheat, medusahead robs native plants of necessary water and seems particularly suited to the Eastern Oregon climate. Too, according to the Oregon Department of Agriculture, it changes the temperature and moisture dynamics of the soil so much that once land is infested, little else will grow there.

While MB906 may not be the complete answer to controlling cheatgrass and medusahead, Lister and BioWest clearly believe it has a major role to play, so much so that Lister is currently touring the intermountain West to talk about the stuff. His closest stop to Bend, so far, is in Christmas Valley on Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Community Hall on Holly Lane. Lunch will be served.

— Janet Stevens is deputy editor of The Bulletin. Contact: 541-617-7821, jstevens@bendbulletin.com