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Converting old pasture to natives

deerhunter93

deerhunter93

Well-Known Member
My folks live on about 10 acres that was pasture many years ago (lots of fescue and brome). We have burned most of it over the years but fairly early in the spring so we haven't seen much of a change over time. Without adding new seed, what would you guys do to increase the native grasses this year?

Spring is early this year so I thought one of these two options or is there something better?

1) burn asap and then spray the new growth in a couple weeks to kill the cool season grasses. My only concern is with how early the spring is, how late can we spray to kill the brome/fescue without harming the warm season grasses?

2) burn later in the spring (May???) and not spray.

What do you guys think?
 
Burning will not harm cool season grasses, they will come back with a vengeance. Unless the pasture was seeded with warm season grasses, you probably don't have any, its probably pure cool season species. I don't have much advice for converting to NWSG, but if you want an old field with forbs, spray the grass now, mow in late August and spray in October. You might need to repeat for a couple years if the seedbank is stocked with cool season grasses.
 
Add more seed! ;). Not what u asked but …. If the native seed bank isn’t there- the brome & fescue seed always will be.
Side note: can look at csp, eqip funds for seeding it down to beans…. Then pollinator for 2 or 3 years. They pay u $700 or so. & all those years count as crop years so CRP possible.

Spray, seed it & clip it depending on herbicide.
 
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