Pasture Recovery

[inyati13]

It is extremely dry here. Pastures are beginning to look and feel like corn flakes. I was wondering when it does start a new weather cycle of raining and I am guessing that may not be until fall, will the pastures recover? I suppose the root systems can remain viable for some time. Are the clover root systems more or less resistant to drought than the grasses?

[novatech]

Depending on the grass, length of drought etc the roots may or may not recover. The clover is usually a reseeding annual so without the competition the clover often comes back better than ever if you get the rain at the right time. Unfortunately so do weeds. If the weeds come first herbicide could be used. if not then you will have to deal with weeds taking over. Wild mustard and thistle hit us hard in the spring this year. These were fall germinating seeds that overtook the clover and eventually shaded it out. After getting rid of the thistle and wild mustard I was left with bare ground which was promptly covered by woolly crouton, dove weed, sand burrs, ragweed or a list of others. I used Cimarron Plus and 2-4-D on them. Only now are the native grasses starting to come back. We are still way behind in rain so a good recovery just isn't happening. So what I am saying is that drought has long term effects. Worst is I've head it could last another 12 to 15 years.

[inyati13]

Awww 12 to 15 years. You could have talked all day and not said that!! I think I'll move to Kenya and raise cattle with the Masai.

[pdfangus]

our worst dry year in recent memory was in 2002....
two years ago was very dry as well but in 2002 it did not rain from may to september.
when it did rain it was a hurricane and we got something like nine or ten inches in 24 hours.
Grass came booming back and we coasted thru the fall which was very good because we only had a 40% hay crop in the spring.

so yes grass can survive....depending on the soil and a lot of factors.

last year was a very good crop year followed by a very mild winter here and yet lots of grass stands this spring are very weak...I am not sure that we have puzzled out quite why.

[shaz]

Back in 2006 I had 53 cows on 40 acres during the worst drought I can remember. I had agreed to buy 170+ adjoining acres but the closing date got screwed up because of a tenant on the place. Well, my 40 acres got a horrible pounding as you can imagine.
Got the cows moved in Sept and some good rain in Nov. By late December I had some decent grass.