Anybody graze/know about "native" grasses,opinions

[EIEIO]

Well, my EQUIP grant got approved this year. I'm excited about the fencing, fertilizer, seed, and water lines it will be paying half for but I have NO warm season grasses on this place unless you count Broom Sedge and I need to establish some. The grant is going to cover frost seeding some Lespedza which is warm season however it's a legume.

Regarding the natives the grant will cover I've been given the choice of Big and Little Blue, Indian, and Switch grass. I had planned on putting in about 30 acres of warm season grasses in one of my hay fields. Been doing a lot of reading on them all and even though a combination of the Big Blue and Indian may work for me along with the Lespedeza I'd sure sure for some reason still like to put in some Bermuda even though my grant won't cover it however at the moment anyway I think I'd rather pay out of pocket for a quality Bermuda and have a good grass I could even sell for hay if I did not need it all than one of the other varieties as it looks to me anyway like they will require me to kill off all the Fescue before planting a native. I may be wrong on the killing off of the Fescue but it sure looks like they want it done.

In the past some of my favorite hayfields have been in Fescue and Bermuda and I'd get an early cutting of fescue and 6-8 weeks later the Bermuda would come on and I'd get another cutting. Sure would like to work something like that out again.

Guess I'm looking for opinions on if I should skip the native stuff as well as if anyone out there grazes or has grazed any of the grasses I mentioned and if so how they liked or did not like them.

J

FWIW- I'm in south central Missouri.

 

[dun]

Killing the fescue won;t be done in one season. Possibly 2 if you spray twice each year.
Indian grass gets pretty tall but a mixture of big and little blue is said to work well. We just did 27 acres of big little and sideoats. This year it's actaully germinated. Switch wrks well in wetter areas like the spillway of dams and low lying areas if you get an abundance of moisture. I wouldn;t think that bermuda and the native WSGs would work too well. The native WSG are not a very agressive gower and would probably be choked out by the bermuda. At $45 to 60 an acre depending on the seeding rate and the mixture, I sure wouldn;t risk it. For the same reason tring to grow WSG in fescue wouldn't be a good idea. fescue into an established 3-5 year old stand of WSG might work but WSG intofescue won;t accomplish diddly other then spend money.

dun

 

[Bluestem]

Cattle will eat the switch and little blue in the spring. But leave it later in the year. It gets tough. They will graze the big blue and Indian through the season. The result will be a field of switch and little blue over time. I'd plant big blue, Indian and maybe some sideoats. The native grasses will outcompete bermuda if you do not fertilize. Bermuda likes fertilizer, natives do fine without it.