Canary grass for pasture grass

[Holmesfarm]

does anyone know if Canary grass makes for good pasture grass for beef cows?I know it thrives on wet land and I have that. I get alot of reed grass which they do not like.

 

[Stocker Steve]

does anyone know if Canary grass makes for good pasture grass for beef cows?I know it thrives on wet land and I have that.

It is a good yielder, very persistent, handles wet or dry weather well, and respondes to N.

It also is slow to establish and stops growing early in the fall.

You need to work the ground up and avoid alot of competition to have a good chance of a thick stand of RC. I put too much clover into my last seeding and it choked some of the RC seedlings out.

 

[Holmesfarm]

Steve, Do the cow like to graze on it and also if baled up do they like it dry? Thanks for the reply

 

[Stocker Steve]

They eat it OK but they like legume better. The issue with unimproved RC varieties in low ground is it gets so course and stemmy if you are not able harvest it on time.

 

[jp]

we had it years ago in NY on our wet fields. the cows grazed it good, we green chopped some and baled some,as long as we didnt let it grow too long everything was good. jp

 

[Saltydawg]

I have a couple fields of canary grass.

Cows graze it good but if you're gonna bale it for hay you need to get it early. Once it gets stemmy and mature the cows don't like it at all.
I imagine they'd eat it before starving but thats not really a good way to feed your cows hehe.

Cut it early and it's good.....excellent yields from it.