How can you "Manage Out" cheat grass?

[Steve Wilson]

Dun's "You can never tell" post got me to wondering. Some may recall my saga last spring with the pasture we refer to as The Out Back. The one that caused me to spend a fortune rebuilding the borrowed field sprayer, just to get it in operational condition to spray that pasture. It is a long neglected pasture that had become mostly weeds and blackberries. I mowed it that previous summer, for the second year in a row. Just to knock the weeds down and try to get some grass to grow.

Anyway, last September we lightly disked a portion of it and seeded it with OG, Timothy and forage turnips. Lack of rainfall resulted in nothing but a fair amount of the turnips sprouting up until we just got tired of checking on it back in about early November. When I was back there spraying in May, I noticed quite a bit of OG and Timothy was up. The sheep had managed to slither through the fence someplace and were all congregated there. After spraying with Grazon, the ironweed turned its lips up and exposed a thick stand of cheat grass just about everywhere. The OG and Timothy is still there, where we planted it, but man is that cheat ever thick there and everywhere else.

I was cautioned by members here not to get too eager to reseed the pasture this coming spring, because the Grazon residual may still be strong enough to result in a thin stand, and that clovers may not sprout at all. The haybeans we planted in another pasture were cut and baled this week. This coming weekend or next, I will be disking that field and broadcasting grass seed and fertilizer. I'm thinking to hit a portion of the Out Back with the disk too and sling some wheat on it, as a check to see if the Grazon has broken down enough yet to allow grass type plants to grow.

My question is, is there anything I can do from a management point to reduce the amount of cheat grass? Or do I just have to wait until I am able to reseed the pasture with desired species?

Many thanks,

 

[Sage]

Heavy grazing or cutting early spring before the cheatgrass heads works to get rid of it but it waill take a few years. You need to hit it hard and very early and graize it to the dirt and don't let it re-seed. There was a hillside on a place I worked for a while that was cheatgrass and we graized it hard for 3 springs early and it wiped it out. We put about 5 head/acre and left them there as long as we could keep them in the fence.

 

[msscamp]

My question is, is there anything I can do from a management point to reduce the amount of cheat grass? Or do I just have to wait until I am able to reseed the pasture with desired species?

Many thanks,

Yes, you can check with your county weed control office about a pre-emergent for cheatgrass. I know there are a couple on the market, I just don't remember what the names are. Reseeding won't make a whole lot of difference, because cheatgrass germinates earlier than desirable grasses, saps the moisture, and keeps the desirable grasses from germinating. Check out the pre-emergents.

 

[hillrancher]

I would not worry about it. Take advantage of it and use it for winter pasture. I give mine a shot of fertlizer about now and pasture it and cut for hay early. As posted it will die out and your planted grass will take over.

 

[msscamp]

I would not worry about it. Take advantage of it and use it for winter pasture. I give mine a shot of fertlizer about now and pasture it and cut for hay early. As posted it will die out and your planted grass will take over.

Cheat grass does not die out, it just reseeds and spreads. Nothing will eat it once it has seeded out, either. Mow it, and it just seeds out at the shorter levels. You're in Arkansas, you have a higher rainfall than than those of us in Wyoming and Missouri. What works for you won't usually work for us.