Orchard grass?

[Post Oak]

I discovered this yesterday while walking my pasture. I think that it is orchard grass. Orchard grass is not supposed to grow in South Carolina.URL=http://s1316.photobucket.com/user/Jody_Beam/media/image_zps429f9aad.jpg.html]

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[dun]

Sure looks like OG to me.

 

[Post Oak]

I am just curious where it came from because there is lot of it in that pasture and I have never seen it there or anywhere else on my place. I cleared that land in 2007 and I used it as my dove field and for winter grazing by rotating brown top millet and ryegrass. I planted that pasture with KY 31 and Durana in the fall of 2009. The Durana is very dominant over the KY 31 and next fall I am gonna pour the 34-0-0 to it so the KY 31 can get a jump on the clover.

 

[dryfork2]

Looks like you getting lucky.

 

[Post Oak]

Looks like you getting lucky.

Getting lucky how? With the orchard grass? I hope that it stays around because it is growing better than the fescue.

 

[dryfork2]

O.g. Makes good hay or pasture. Even better in a mix

 

[Post Oak]

O.g. Makes good hay or pasture. Even better in a mix

Does orchard grass pretty much have the same growing season as fescue?

 

[dryfork2]

Ours coming on pretty strong right now. I use more for hay, get 2nd cut in good years or limit graze in fall. Also mix in alfalfa to fill in weak spots. Your climate a lot warmer so it might last longer in the fall
Fescue is hard to beat for grazing especially mixed with legumes. Fescue should grow until it freezes.

 

[sizmic]

It came in the ryegrass seed, it's real hard to get that stuff seperated in the cleaner, they are very similar in size and weight.

We have the ryegrass come up in fields we sow in orchard grass.

Sizmic

 

[dun]

O.g. Makes good hay or pasture. Even better in a mix

Does orchard grass pretty much have the same growing season as fescue?

Pretty close. OG starts a bit later and peaks at abouit the same time but has a litttle better growth in the early fall then fescue. But fescue will grow a bit longer in the fall/winter. Depending on the type of OG (we have Patomac) our cows will eat anything before they will even start on the OG. They'll even eat downy brome before OG

 

[skyhightree1]

my cattle love OG hay but during the growing season they love fescue.

 

[Post Oak]

Update: It has been 2 years and the orchard grass is still here and it has spread across the pasture that I found it in. I know that we have had wet mild summers in 2013 and 2014, but the university/government boys say that orchard grass is not supposed to grow in South Carolina.

 

[msplmtneer]

Bumble Bees can't fly either according to engineers.
So like my dad always said don't believe anything you're told and only half of what you see!

 

[greybeard]

I am just curious where it came from because there is lot of it in that pasture and I have never seen it there or anywhere else on my place. I cleared that land in 2007 and I used it as my dove field..

Birds can and do deposit all kinds of seeds ingested at another location--and spread any number of grasses and weeds--good and bad--when they poop the seeds out--in your (and my) pastures.
There IS, as stated, a certain amt of odd seeds in any sack of seed, but generally, you see the results of that spread over a large random area in a spotty fashion the 1st year, not grouped up in a wad. You may not even notice the first growing season and the random plants go to seed. Subsequent years, the seedhead growth from those 1st random plants makes it look like 'someone or something' planted a little patch or two in the middle of your desirable and intentionally planted grasses.

Let one goatweed plant mature in a field of Bahia or coastal, and the next year, you will have 100 goatweed in the same spot.

 

[Kell-inKY]

It came in the ryegrass seed, it's real hard to get that stuff seperated in the cleaner, they are very similar in size and weight.

We have the ryegrass come up in fields we sow in orchard grass.

Sizmic

That's interesting, I planted a quite a few bare patches here and there with orchard grass, and was wondering why all I have there is annual ryegrass now. I think somebody pulled a fast one on me, or was lazy and mislabled?

 

[Banjo]

Update: It has been 2 years and the orchard grass is still here and it has spread across the pasture that I found it in. I know that we have had wet mild summers in 2013 and 2014, but the university/government boys say that orchard grass is not supposed to grow in South Carolina.

Why not? Looks to me like it would be ideal down south. Persist OG seems to be very palatable to my cows and tolerates warmweather better than fescue even though it is a cool season grass.

 

[Lucky_P]

dun,
My experience with Potomac was similar - it was absolutely the last thing the cows would graze...they'd eat plantain and various other weeds, like wild sunflower, ragweed, etc. before they'd touch the OG. Don't think they liked Benchmark much better...
Have had good acceptance of Persist OG... they don't seem to back off from it any more than anything else in the sward.

Remember my dad sowing some OG, back home in UCLA (upper corner of lower Alabama), back when I was a kid. Don't know that he ever got anything approximating a decent stand... but remember a clump here and there in the back yard that persisted for at least 20 years...

 

[Post Oak]

dun,
My experience with Potomac was similar - it was absolutely the last thing the cows would graze...they'd eat plantain and various other weeds, like wild sunflower, ragweed, etc. before they'd touch the OG. Don't think they liked Benchmark much better...
Have had good acceptance of Persist OG... they don't seem to back off from it any more than anything else in the sward.

Remember my dad sowing some OG, back home in UCLA (upper corner of lower Alabama), back when I was a kid. Don't know that he ever got anything approximating a decent stand... but remember a clump here and there in the back yard that persisted for at least 20 years...

LOL @ UCLA. I spent some time near UCLA back in 91 and 92. There used to be a station out of Dothan that played some old time hard core country music. It was like 92 something. People would call in and sound like they just got out of a time machine from the 40s or 50s. That was a nice country because they had not received all the immigration from north of the Potomac like we had in the Carolinas at that time.

 

[Lucky_P]

Post Oak..
You mean WLWI 92.3...out of Monkeytown(Montgomery)... Rhubarb Jones, Dr. Sam. and that crew...?
Not sure it's even country anymore.

Been gone from there since '85... but still have extended family in the area...