Economical Sward Development
Or
“Poor Boy’s Pasture”

Life provides many teachers. One of mine has been the National Geographic Magazine. The treasures of global exposure right at one’s fingertips are a wealth of information.

One day several years ago, while waiting on a busy veterinarian working at my day job as a veterinary pharmaceutical rep, I became engrossed in a National Geographic article on warm season native prairie grasses. The article related that these grasses have root systems that usually are 4 to 8 feet deep and often are 10 to 20 feet deep. The depth of the root system caused the grasses to endure centuries of prairie fires, mulching under the hooves of thousand’s of migrating buffalo and even the mismanagement of man and his plow. The roots improved percolation in the soils, transported elemental nutrients from deep sub-soils to plant available top-soils, housed and fed millions of earth worms and beneficial microbes, and added biomass for organic addition over the years to increase fertility and build a deep base of topsoil. One might say the root of the highly fertile soils of the Midwest and West was just that – roots.

This knowledge was converted to wisdom when my partner and I began to develop his 350 acre grass farm in west Tennessee three years ago. His farm lies in the heart of country previously forested but cleared many years ago. The soils are poorly drained, highly acid and have a high clay composition. The previous owner had developed one-half of the farm to improved fescue pastures with the other half given to weeds and serresa. Water pooled after a rain just about everywhere that was not a slope.

During my pasture walks to take forage and soil samples, I observed that where Little Bluestem grass had volunteered in, the percolation was improved and the durability of the turf dramatically better. That reminded me of that old National Geographic article. A plan evolved to utilize natural resources to improve the pastures condition and conserve expense.

The evolution of our pasture program began with grazing our November 2004 delivery cattle on stockpiled fescue and in spots, fairly heavy Little Bluestem. The dry winter-dormant Little Bluestem proved to be a secondary grass that was grazed only after the primary grasses were cropped. During February, we limed and later over-seeded with rye, orchard grass and red clover. We have not added fertilizer in three years. We had more grass than cattle during the lush the first two years so we mowed the pastures two or three time per summer either behind or ahead of the cattle as we rotated. Behind or ahead mowing was dictated by maturity of the grasses to be grazed. We tried to have young, tender, nutritious grass for the cattle going into the paddock. The mulch from the mowing provided a nutritional return to the soil.

From August through October, we let the pastures grow, stockpile, and become invaded with flourishing Little Bluestem. Each year, the shocked roots from gazing or mowing the prairie grass added to the biomass while significantly aiding percolation. The roots also brought up elemental nutrients from deep sub-soils to be deposited on the soil surface in the form of manure or new mown grass. Increased mineralization came through the cattle who consumed a free choice mineral complex designed to balance with the forage nutritional composition.

We have found success with a mix of Albion Labs Triple Trust Beef and Dairy combined with MgSO4, KCL, Vitamin E. Selenium, and Iodine. Additional nitrogen is provided to the soil by the red clover that now composes 20 to 30 % of the sward during the spring and summer.

A key to our ability to get along so economically has been having more grass than cattle. The return of mulch to the soil went out the door this year when we crossed over into the realm of more cattle than grass during the dormant months. We made hay this past summer, realizing we would be short on stockpiled pasture to winter the growing number of cattle. In 2007, we will be forced to either de-stock to resume mulching or fertilize to replace that which is lost from the soil during the hay making process. The nutrients will be returned to the soil through manure during the winter in our “closed system” but the timing will be delayed from stimulating the timely growth we need during the current growth cycle of the forages.

The utilization of the warm season prairie grasses has allowed noticeable soil and sward improvement without significant expense during our early herd development. As our numbers increase, MIG and outside inputs will become more of a part of our management. However, the knowledge gained from National Geographic Magazine will always play a role in our “maximization of natural resources.”