Has cheatgrass or brome overrun your native summer pastures?

Cheatgrass, Japanese brome, western wheatgrass and other cool-season plants have invaded many warm-season grass pastures and rangeland. This invasion shifts good grazing away from summer and toward springtime when most folks have plenty of pasture anyway.

Cool-season grasses take over summer pastures relatively easily because they develop rapidly during fall and spring when native grass provides little competition. Then they use moisture and nutrients during spring before warm-season plants have a chance to use them.

Hard grazing this fall after our recent freezes, as well as early next spring, will weaken brome and cheatgrass when warm-season plants are dormant and unaffected. This can stop further invasion and slowly improve summer production. A prescribed spring burn also can do wonders for a warm-season pasture if you have enough fuel to carry a fire and can conduct the burn safely and legally.

Maybe the fastest approach, though, is to apply glyphosate herbicides like Roundup now in late fall. Recent hard freezes have turned warm-season plants dormant but weedy cool-season grasses still are green. Apply glyphosate when temperatures during the day are above 60 degrees and nighttime temperatures stay above 40 degrees for best results. This will kill or weaken the green and susceptible cool-season grasses but not affect dormant warm-season plants. By reducing competition, warm-season plants will grow more vigorously next year and provide better summer pasture.

Don't settle for invaded native pasture. Transform them back to vigorous warm-season grasses for better summer grazing.

Renovating CRP for grazing or haying

As CRP contracts expire, some landowners are considering what needs to be done to transition the acres into a productive grazing or haying enterprise. If no removal of plant material has occurred for five or more years, plants have a limited root system and low vigor. Tall grasses produce large amounts of standing dead material and shade young plants that try to grow. Many stands are thin with large areas of bare ground between plants.

Increasing plant density and vigor is the first step to improving the stand for use as pasture or hay. Spring burning is an effective method of removing the standing dead material and mulch to allow sunlight to reach the crown of the plant. If allowed to remain, previous years' forage growth will dilute the diet of grazing animals and suppress growth of young plants. Burning also will help control undesirable plants such as the eastern red cedar. Your local county Extension office has materials about controlled burning and can help you find burn contractors or burn schools in your area.

Mowing or haying in March or April is another method to remove litter, although hay removed at this point would be relatively low in protein and energy. A three-year study compared spring burning or spring mowing in year one to non-treated CRP. Stocker performance increased 6 percent to 38 percent after spring burning compared to no treatment. Average daily gain for stockers on the mowed plots was 2 percent to 5 percent more than controls.

Since burning and mowing won't fit all situations, other options should be considered. CRP acres could be used as a calving pasture and would provide plenty of bedding and clean ground. Lactating cows would need supplementation to meet both protein and energy needs.

Extreme grazing, known as "flogging" in the graziers glossary, has a goal of leaving little residual forage. It is achieved by using a very heavy stocking for a short period of time (80 to 100 cows per acre for one to seven days). This results in trampling the dead litter into the soil and opening up new areas for seedlings and tillers. Temporary electric fencing is often needed to concentrate animals in a smaller area and then allow movement to the next section. If grazed as early as allowed in the fall, nutrient content will be relatively higher, reducing supplement needs.

Other limiting factors in CRP productivity are undesirable weeds and brush.

These problems might be best addressed while still under contract since herbicide options are broader for CRP than for use for hay or grazing.

Just like anything that hasn't been used for a while, CRP grass stands need some type of rejuvenation to make them more productive. Individual pasture conditions will help determine if burning, mowing or grazing is the best technique to employ.

* Information provided by Bruce Anderson, UNL forage specialist, and Sandy Johnson, KSU beef specialist.

Stacy Campbell is Ellis County agricultural agent with Kansas State Research and Extension.