Sage Grass

[midTN_Brangusman]

My pasture is covered in the stuff. I have been told that if you apply lime it wont come back and some say it does so not sure. Have any of you cattlemen and cattlewomen had success in removing sage grass from your pastures. Keep in mind this is not on my farm but a farm that I lease year to year, so not looking to spend much on it. Thanks for the time and God Bless!! :cboy:

 

[Bigfoot]

Yea, lime will knock it back. Breaking, resowing, and limeing will turn it back faster. Not sure if either of those are enticing on a rental property.

 

[BC]

midTN_Brangusman, sage grass or broomsedge bluestem is an indicator of acid soils and low soil fertility. It may be hard to control without putting some inputs into a place you may not have next year.

 

[HDRider]

I was just reading a book that a smart guy on here told me about. Ya'll are right about lime. The book also said cattle will graze it when it first shoots up tender green in the spring, but they won't graze it long.

According to the book, do a soil test, lime it good and cut it back short now, graze it heavy in the spring and then mow it down. I bet that will know the heck out of it.

I got the same problem. I just can't deal with it right now.

This is broomsedge I am talking about.

 

[Bigfoot]

I was just reading a book that a smart guy on here told me about. Ya'll are right about lime. The book also said cattle will graze it when it first shoots up tender green in the spring, but they won't graze it long.

According to the book, do a soil test, lime it good and cut it back short now, graze it heavy in the spring and then mow it down. I bet that will know the heck out of it.

I got the same problem. I just can't deal with it right now.

This is broomsedge I am talking about.

I don't remember making any book recommendations

 

[rnh2]

Keep the matches away from the stuff. It will burn when nothing else will

 

[tnwalkingred]

I've got it terrible in my hay fields and also in some pasture. I plan on liming and fertilizing heavy this fall and spring on any ground I know I'll have again next year as this last hay crop is worthless. From the soil tests I've seen its more of a lack of phosphorus than lime.

KW

 

[dun]

Once it's established, ph and fertilizer will still take years to egt rid of the stuff. We have one field that has it, we've gotten the ph above 6.6 and the P&K are almost too high. They comment on it every soil test. This year it;s a lot thinner but the greasegrass and foxtail have gone crazy. Only took about 8 years to get to that point.

 

[wbvs58]

I had good success with what I call Pin Rushes. I slashed the paddocks in spring and the green new shoots shot up fast above the other grasses and I was able to get an effective kill with a wick wiper using Glyphosate and only doing minimal damage to the other grasses but I do need the lime to keep it away in the long term.
Ken

 

[cowgirl8]

Wild hogs took care of ours. Was pretty much what our place was covered in when we bought it years ago...Over time, the pigs uproot it. Some times i'd go out early in the morning and big areas were uprooted over night. We have very little of it now..
Its good grazing until it shoots up seed stalks..

 

[Kell-inKY]

and foxtail have gone crazy.

X2,
any summer grass or weed you can imagine is out of control where I live

 

[tnwalkingred]

Dun,

What is grease grass ? Never heard of it.

KW

 

[dun]

Dun,

What is grease grass ? Never heard of it.

KW

Some places all it purpletop or redtop. It's a scrawny warm season bunch grass that grows kind of sparsly. If you grab the seed stalk and slide your fingers along it's lerngth you will get a greasy feeling on your finger, taht's why it's called greasegrass

 

[tnwalkingred]

Thanks Dun! We call that purple top here and yes it's everywhere this late summer. I've always been told it makes decent hay but have little information to back that up. Thoughts?

KW

 

[dun]

Thanks Dun! We call that purple top here and yes it's everywhere this late summer. I've always been told it makes decent hay but have little information to back that up. Thoughts?

KW

I would wonder about the palability of thestuff if there is much stem. Here it;s so sparse asn scattered that haying it would produce mostly fescue with just a mix of greasegrass. There is a lady down the road from us that bales her broomsedge every year. Sells it as "Golden Bluestem". It;s sort of in the family of bluestem but I think she's stretching things a bit. But she sells it cheap, less then the cost of baling so she sells out every year.