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| This is native tallgrass pasture, big bluestem and switchgrass primarily. It's the warm season grass that's been here forever on undisturbed prairie. The large remaining tracts are a couple counties west of us in the flint hills. In our area a quarter section is a large pasture. It's too hilly and rocky to have ever been tilled. Fire has been used to manage woody growth, many weeds, and undesirable cool season grasses since the buffalo ran wild here and lightning or native people lit fires. The cattle prefer and gain better if it's burned off during the dormant stage, and maximum weed suppression is if done right at green-up which is mid April here. Fertilizer isn't used, as it encourages weeds and cool season grasses more that the native grass that developed under relatively low fertility. Annual burning and occasional weed spraying is the way most is managed. Stocking rate is about 1/3 of tame grass, but the rate of gain and cost of gain is better. If overgrazed to the point of not having enough left over dormant grass to carry a fire, brush and weeds will eventually take over. "Take half leave half" is what the old- timers would say, so even in a dry year you'd have enough forage to get you by. | |
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Pasture burning drone video
