Logan52
Well-known member
Kentucky is widely known as the "Bluegrass State" and the home of Bluegrass Music. Decades ago, cattle fattened on bluegrass pastures and these same pastures produced some of the fastest horses in the world.
This comes to mind because for about a week or so each year the fields take on a bluish hue in late April or early May as the bluegrass heads out, and they are doing it again. Trouble is, bluegrass just is not what it once was.
I remember fields of waving bluegrass well over knee high, ready to be cut for hay. Today it seems to head out from six inches to a foot high and hardly worthy of making hay. My pastures are about 40% bluegrass but it is really only useful for a short window in the spring, after which fescue takes over.
Korean Lespedeza is another forage crop once prominent here that has faded. It rarely gets over a few inches tall in lawns or pastures. Close grazing and mowing seems to have selected for shorter plants, it blooms in my yard an inch or two off the ground in order to set seed under the mower blades.
When I want to renovate pasture, I think of orchard grass and red clover, not bluegrass or lespedeza.
This comes to mind because for about a week or so each year the fields take on a bluish hue in late April or early May as the bluegrass heads out, and they are doing it again. Trouble is, bluegrass just is not what it once was.
I remember fields of waving bluegrass well over knee high, ready to be cut for hay. Today it seems to head out from six inches to a foot high and hardly worthy of making hay. My pastures are about 40% bluegrass but it is really only useful for a short window in the spring, after which fescue takes over.
Korean Lespedeza is another forage crop once prominent here that has faded. It rarely gets over a few inches tall in lawns or pastures. Close grazing and mowing seems to have selected for shorter plants, it blooms in my yard an inch or two off the ground in order to set seed under the mower blades.
When I want to renovate pasture, I think of orchard grass and red clover, not bluegrass or lespedeza.
