Bermuda Grass

[1982vett]

Tis Wooly Croton........and their are a lot more than just two...LOL...however they are starving for water just like the grass so not problem just yet.

Is that what some call goat weed?

yep, goat weed or dove weed.....some even call it milk weed

 

[TexasBred]

Tis Wooly Croton........and their are a lot more than just two...LOL...however they are starving for water just like the grass so not problem just yet.

Is that what some call goat weed?

Looks like what we call goat weed...plow up the ground in a field that's never had them and you WILL have them soon. Seeds must lay dormant for ages.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

maybe a opportunistic weed,, when theres little competition

 

[whitewing]

I love bermuda.

 

[JSCATTLE]

Nice pictures white wing.... sure wish I had mountains to look at while in the hay field ....with out having to live in the snow half the year

 

[Jogeephus]

What are the reasons people dont like common bermuda?

I think this picture answers your question. On the left is a hybrid and the upper right is common that I hope to kill before next year. Both received same treatment but there is at least a foot difference in height. Its not hard to see there is quite a yield difference between the two and with the cost of fertilizer I think the better of the two is pretty obvious.

 

[Kingfisher]

Did you know there was an Outlaw in South Texas back in the day called KingFisher?

Shhhhh :cowboy: lol No I did not. What was he all about? My family is from South Texas so who knows.

 

[Kingfisher]

Nice pictures white wing.... sure wish I had mountains to look at while in the hay field ....with out having to live in the snow half the year

Mountains!!? lol Those are lil hills....

 

[ga.prime]

Very good illustration. I have some patches of common in my hayfield. It won't get tall enough for a disc mower to cut. It's golf course grass.

 

[MasseyFerg]

common is too short to hay and doesn't produce as much as coastal.

Native grasses are not a replacement for coastal. Sure you aint gotta fertilize native grasses but they don't produce for squat. you can run a cow/calf on 3 acres or less of coastal with native you are talking 10-20 acres or more. now if you have a 1000 acre west texas ranch I guess native is ok but most don't. lots of grasses to choose from but the improved varieties of bermuda, coastal, Tifton, Midland, Brazos are all good choices.
If you don't plan on fertilizing the coastal or other improved varities then don't waste your money planting them.Just buy some cheap common and maybe a giant variety and plant that.

 

[novatech]

common is too short to hay and doesn't produce as much as coastal.

Native grasses are not a replacement for coastal. Sure you aint gotta fertilize native grasses but they don't produce for squat. you can run a cow/calf on 3 acres or less of coastal with native you are talking 10-20 acres or more. now if you have a 1000 acre west texas ranch I guess native is ok but most don't. lots of grasses to choose from but the improved varieties of bermuda, coastal, Tifton, Midland, Brazos are all good choices.
If you don't plan on fertilizing the coastal or other improved varities then don't waste your money planting them.Just buy some cheap common and maybe a giant variety and plant that.

I agree with everything else but "common is too short to hay ". I have put up plenty in square bales. It may be shorter but it is usually thicker. I still wouldn't plant it for hay or pasture. Tifton 85, Coastal and Jiggs will out preform it with not only less fertilizer but less water.

 

[1982vett]

common is too short to hay and doesn't produce as much as coastal.

Native grasses are not a replacement for coastal. Sure you aint gotta fertilize native grasses but they don't produce for squat. you can run a cow/calf on 3 acres or less of coastal with native you are talking 10-20 acres or more. now if you have a 1000 acre west texas ranch I guess native is ok but most don't. lots of grasses to choose from but the improved varieties of bermuda, coastal, Tifton, Midland, Brazos are all good choices.
If you don't plan on fertilizing the coastal or other improved varities then don't waste your money planting them.Just buy some cheap common and maybe a giant variety and plant that.

Just a choice you have to make....

PS...just a touch of water and a hint of fertilier, some ofthe natives will blow the socks off unfertilized bermuda....

 

[ALACOWMAN]

the folks that raise coastal here,, the start up cost is to high for them """not"" to maintain it.. theres a 10 acre coastal field on a lease, that pretty trashy right now.. he sprigged it with a manure spreader and disc it in himself, done good for years but let go after he died

 

[Brute 23]

We have both native and improved places. It takes half as many acres per cow-calf on coastal vs native. We are just now getting some tifton going and I can't imagine what it will do. By watching a neighbor with tifton, it looks like he could run the same number of cattle on 2/3 the pasture we do with coastal.

 

[Jogeephus]

I agree with what ya'll are saying about the hybrids and its needs versus the needs of natives (and I'll add bahia). I'd hate to know every acre I have was planted in improved bermuda varieties. IMO, you have to strike a balance. Most of what I have is in bahia and it rarely sees fertilizer yet the soil tests come back fine each time. What it doesn't produce in quick growth it makes up in terms of length of growing season. Not sure about this but I also think there are several different types of bermuda clumped under the definition of common. My common will not run through a baler and at best is only about 3-4 inches long.

 

[Anonymous]

I've got one field of pensacola, and getting ready to do another in Tif 9. Come spring I'm hoping to try some of that T85 on the pensacola field. The pensacola is great for bouncing back after drouht and not needing a lot of input, but the growth just isn't there like I want. I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket, but hopefully I can find a balance that works between the T9 and the T85

 

[ga.prime]

Not sure about this butI also think there are several different types of bermuda lumped under the definition of common. My common will not run through a baler and at best is only about 3-4 inches long.

I guess. You'd need a lawn mower to cut mine and a vacuum cleaner to get it off the ground. The kind I have won't cut, rake, or bale. Meanwhile, the coastal is arse high to a bear.

 

[JSCATTLE]

I have coastal, Alicia , tifton 85 and several different common types of Bermuda. some of the common looks like carpet and some looks close to the Alicia .. the one I like the best is the tifton 85 but its harder to get established ... if the drought breaks I'm going to sprig another 30 acres next year .

 

[Jogeephus]

GP it sounds like you have what I have. I'm counting the seed heads in my measurement. Just ain't nothing there. I would love it in my yard though.

 

[danl]

Is common bermuda as good a quality of hay as the hybrids? In terms of food value?

My cows don't like to graze on it, but they can't get enough once it is hay. I just put out a little bale, that we didn't even wrap (the one that alway ends up without enough to finish up a full size bale) and they passed up on green grass to eat it up.

I don't know what kind of common bermuda we have but it gets pretty tall, a lot taller than 3 or 4 inches, maybe 12 to 14 inches. It is taking over several fields.
I just put up some 2nd cutting bermuda and picking up the bales was pulling my front wheels off the ground on my Massey 135. Sure was some heavy stuff.