native grass?

[cowman]

We have one quarter that has never been broken and grows a native grass that my Dad always called prairie wool. Of course it is a variety of grasses but the dominant one is a grass I call "milk fat", a fine wispy grass that grows fairly short and curly. We used to always throw the yearlings in there for the last month-six weeks before selling them, but have not grazed it this year since June 15, as we intend to use some of it for late fall pasture and the rest for early spring pasture.
Now I don't know what is in this stuff but they sure do well on it. My Dad used to always bale some up for the sale bulls.
This quarter is not very good land and doesn't produce a lot of volume but it sure can produce a quality product. I suppose if we broke it up it might grow a decent crop if we poured the fertilizer to it, but not sure how profitable it would be?
It actually is a pretty place with lots of wildflowers, shrubs and quite a few willow clumps. Thistles and absinthe just can't get a toe hold in this native grass.

[whiteface]

Funny you say that cowman, in reading the other thread about the thistles with so much interest I had some sense of sadness that I never (touch wood) get thistles so witness the painted lady caterpillars or see if rain will in fact kill them once cut.
My place is all "prairie wool" and alfalfa and I find the two compliment each other perfectly as far as times of year to graze and protein levels when needed. The native grass is tough and stands drought, grasshoppers, frost, snow in August and always has a nice mix of plants in it ( wildflowers, whatever ) that the cattle do eat and seem to do quite well on.
Don't go digging it up cowman. It's good stuff. Have a good day all!

[rkaiser]

Sounds like you're treating this grass well cowman. That is as important as anything. We can overgraze native grass just as bad, or worse than tame. Or we can treat it with some respect and get production for years and years.

Rotation and clipping when the native grass is strong will help the unwanted species encroachment. Most often the first sign of trouble in native grass is buckbrush, but management with an electric fence or two and a mower can do wonders.

[blackjack]

...one of the big advantages with the native is the skrink when a guy sells them off the grass compared here to the grass in the west country...

[farmers_son]

Cowman: The key phrase is “but not sure how profitable it would be”. That is really need to know information for any producer. I have kept records dating back to May 1994 of the grazing I got off of each field. I know how many cows were on a given field on a given day for over 11 years. All movements of cows have been recorded. Without that kind of information it is difficult to judge which is better, the native grass or more intensively managed tame grass. Or even growing crops for feed. You can’t manage what you don’t measure.

And if anyone is wondering which is better, tame or native, the answer is it depends upon the field. Some native fields can produce a lot more than others.

Needless to say I keep my grazing records carefully backed up. Those records are becoming increasingly valuable.

[smcgrath76]

This is a topic that is near and dear to me. We run 80% of our operation on native forage. From your description you may be looking at Blue Grama or a Fescue. If the seed heads look like eyebrows it is BG, but in your neighbourhood, probably fescue is a better bet.
There was a lot of work done by R.T. Coupland at the U of S that basically found, with no inputs, native forage will outproduce tame over a long time frame.
We never touch our native grass until after July 1, other than about 80 acres of sacrifice range that we use to break the scour cycle, but we will graze it right up and into March. We have hayed native range, etc.
The key is to not turn 15 pairs into a quarter and let them go all summer. You are far better off to put more head in for a short time and then get them the heck out of there.

[grassfarmer]

Well said farmers_son, we need more producers with your degree of management if we are to succeed in the solar conversion business!
What's so bad about buckbrush rkaiser? I though it was appreciated out on the open prairie as a snow holder? It certainly isn't a problem here under intensive management I find the cows like it and it is neither an increaser or a decreaser under my system.

[cowman]

Well I was musing on how profitable it might be to grow a crop on? I actually know it would not be profitable as this really isn't very good land and in my area, with high land prices, you need to have very good land if you are growing crops. I do know this land doesn't produce the volume of grass that some of our better land does, but it does produce a quality grass that cattle can actually fatten on.
Bottom line is this land is some future "urban cowboys" little piece of heaven and will probably be worth more than some of our better land?
The writing is on the wall in this area. One of my neighbors recently sold land on the eastern edge of Red Deer. They stripped 2 to 3 feet of black topsoil off it! He says he'll never find land like that again and I believe him...it grew some fantastic crops!
I find it ironic that the cry keeps going out "Save the Farm land" and people get up in arms if some city slicker wants to set up a subdivision on the hilliest rough land in the area...but that no one has a problem with trashing the best farmland in the country to put in massive housing developments?

[nicolaas]

Same in my neck of the woods. People save all the bush and sandy areas around a city for recreation, and get up in arms about development of this non agricultural land, while think nothing of destroying some of the best farmland in the province. The system stinks and I think that some county councillors may be making alot of money