growing NWSG in mid south

[luke03cr]

I am looking into planting sum native warm season grasses into my pastures and hay fields that are dominated by my cool season grasses like fescue. My goal is for a longer grazing season and an extra cutting in the summer. I would like to get other producers inputs on planting and growing them. I'm looking at primarily big and little bluestem, eastern gamma grass, Indian grass and maybe switch grass. Thanks.

 

[hawkeye78]

I think they all sound good but the little bluestem. I have a lot of it in a few of my pastures and the cows don't eat it very well.

 

[pdfangus]

I would not try to mix it with the cool seasons....
plant the warm season grasses in a different field as they need to be managed differently.
they are very productive and can be good quality....
they are also an real wildlife enhancement
they will give you summer growth when the cool seasons go dormant....
but they will not stand close hard grazing in the winter.

 

[dun]

I would not try to mix it with the cool seasons....
plant the warm season grasses in a different field as they need to be managed differently.
they are very productive and can be good quality....
they are also an real wildlife enhancement
they will give you summer growth when the cool seasons go dormant....
but they will not stand close hard grazing in the winter.

or cutting. Their growth points are different then CSG and need to be cut around 6 inches at the lowest or they lose vigor and the stand goes away. The also take longer to get established then typical CSG

 

[luke03cr]

I really don't have any other option but to plant them into my fescue pastures and hay fields. I don't have enough fields to have WSG in 1 and CSG in the other. Is there anything I can do to help them cohabitate with each other, such as plant them directly after first cutting of fescue in may so there not competing with each other or would I be pissing in the wind. If the latter was the case would it be better to plant sum other mix of grasses. Keep in mind I'm going to keep my fescue and clovers and wont kill them out. Thanks

 

[pdfangus]

your money....do what you want....
but the seed ain't cheap...at least by my standards....
and what you want to do is probably not going to work.
the alternative I would suggest is Bermudagrass....
lat years dry weather the common native bermuda was what kept us alive.
this years wet weather we have it in abundance....but it is at the price of strangling out some of the fescue....but the fescue will resurge in the fall.
we did not plant any bermuda....most around here call it a weed....
if cows eat it and perform I call it a forage....

 

[luke03cr]

Well I def don't want to throw my money away and I can't devote any 1 field to a single grass. So would Bermuda be my best wsg option in my fescue pastures or would another work better. I just need a good mix to help get my herd threw the summer forage slump, and hopefully get a nice summer cutting in hayfields.

 

[dun]

FWIW, we had one field that had been fescue. It was sprayed and killed then planted for 3 years in Sudex and 2 years in WW. Sparyed it again just to make sure and planted WSG. First year the WSG didn;t do much, the second year it started to really come on strong, the 3rd year I started noticing some fescue in the field. Now it's the 6th year and the fescue has almost entirely taken back the field.

 

[Banjo]

You should check out 'Persist Orchardgrass' it will perform better in the summer than fescue if you rotational graze it and give it adequate recovery time. There are no magic bullets in the WSG's. It all takes proper management.

 

[Bigfoot]

I planted 2.5 acres of Bermuda this spring. I had always been curious what it would do. Not one seed came up. Whenever I plant grass seed I germinate a few in a cup in my kitchen window. Not one seed germinated there either. I think the experiment tanked because of the seed, not me. I wish it had worked.

 

[dun]

I planted 2.5 acres of Bermuda this spring. I had always been curious what it would do. Not one seed came up. Whenever I plant grass seed I germinate a few in a cup in my kitchen window. Not one seed germinated there either. I think the experiment tanked because of the seed, not me. I wish it had worked.

What was the PLS for the seed you planted, should have been on the bag

 

[Chris H]

Well I def don't want to throw my money away and I can't devote any 1 field to a single grass. So would Bermuda be my best wsg option in my fescue pastures or would another work better. I just need a good mix to help get my herd threw the summer forage slump, and hopefully get a nice summer cutting in hayfields.

We have had luck no-tilling alfalfa in established fescue fields. Graze the fescue close, then no-till seed the alfalfa. Check to see when the best time to plant alfalfa is in your area. We have two windows here, May & August. A good stand of alfalfa can be hayed or grazed.

An alternative is to rotate through your fields, picking a different one every 5-10 years and planting it to Sudex then back to a perennial pasture. Sudex can be hayed or grazed and makes a lot of feed in the summer.

 

[Bigfoot]

I planted 2.5 acres of Bermuda this spring. I had always been curious what it would do. Not one seed came up. Whenever I plant grass seed I germinate a few in a cup in my kitchen window. Not one seed germinated there either. I think the experiment tanked because of the seed, not me. I wish it had worked.

What was the PLS for the seed you planted, should have been on the bag

It was only 50%. If I read it right. The lowest I've ever seen.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

How did you cover the seed Bigfoot?

 

[Bigfoot]

The way I covered the seed, is why I didn't call seed store. It just kept raining and raining, and raining. I burnt down the fescue with round up twice, and couldn't get across the ground to work it. I sewed the seed on top of the ground, and turned about 20 feeder calves in on it to tromp them in. I put 50 pounds of seed on somewhere between 2 and 2.5 acres. 7 pounds to the acre should have been a good stand. I thought enough seed would germinate to give me a decent stand. I know rye and Bermuda are two different things, but I have had my best luck with rye and tromping. The seed in the kitchen window I covered with a 1/4,inch of soil, and kept it moist. I have always tested the germination on grass seed for some reason. When I was a kid I did a science fair project on it, and been doing it ever since.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Bet you have Bermuda out now and for sure next year. May not be a good stand but it will come. You covered the seed in the cup to deep.

 

[Bigfoot]

I had to edit my post to 1/4 inch. I can't find a single Bermuda grass plant in the field. I've got everything off the field, and keep it sprayed with 2,4 d. I have been having my son mow the volunteer crabgrass in hopes that if there are some seedlings they will get enough sunlight to come on. The seed was $250. I've made bigger mistakes I guess.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

I figured you were meaning a quarter inch in the cup. Bermuda seed don't like to much cover. I have had the best luck just sowing on top of the ground and letting the rain cover it.

 

[bigbluegrass]

I planted some NWSG three years ago. It was just a test to see what it would do. It is just starting to become visible this summer. The end of last summer you could make out a few seed heads and I could identify a few of the larger plants. I planted big blue, little blue, indian grass, switch grass, eastern gamma - I think that was it. The areas that had established fescue very little came in. The best area I have was a wooded area that I cleared. I planted that and then grazed it early the first two springs to get the cool season grasses and weeds down and then let it set the first two summers. It came in really nice, but it is almost a pure stand of NWSG, not much of anything else in there. There were a few bare areas in the middle of my fescue that some came in. I guess we will see what it looks like in 6 years. I hope it doesn't go back to straight fescue like Dun says.

I planted bermuda grass about 5 years ago - I haven't seen any of that either. I don't know if I am too far north and it all winter killed, but that was a complete waste for me.

I did plant alfalfa about 5 years ago in most of my fields and it is still going strong with the fescue. It seems to do really well. Besides the NWSG, it is about the only thing I have in most of those fields that keeps growing in the summer heat.

Like everyone else has said, NWSG is different to manage. If you don't rotational graze, I wouldn't even mess with it. It will not take continuous grazing pressure, even if it is established - or at least that is what I have been told and read.

A few things I would NOT do if you do try it. Don't fertilize - the fescue (and weeds) will go crazy and the NWSG won't. Don't lime - most NWSG does better at a PH of high 5 or 6. Fescue likes it a bit higher - if you have a PH in that 5.6 range, the fescue will be stunted and the NWSG will do well.

 

[Bigfoot]

I figured you were meaning a quarter inch in the cup. Bermuda seed don't like to much cover. I have had the best luck just sowing on top of the ground and letting the rain cover it.

We have had the most consistant rains, that I can ever remember from planting till now. I even got an inch yesterday. Surely if it was going to sprout, it would have by now.