Questions about Native Warm-Season Grasses
This page was developed to provide information about the "most frequently asked" questions concerning the value, uses and management techniques of native warm-season grasses. Information is provided in a question/answer format for ease of reference. Greater details are available from the Missouri Department of Conservation or U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Recent publicity has made Missouri cattlemen and wildlife enthusiasts aware of the benefits of planting and managing native warm-season grasses (WSG) for livestock forage and wildlife habitat. The use of WSG can allow both benefits to be realized on the same acreage. However, to enjoy these joint benefits WSG must be properly managed by
1. prevention of over-utilization by grazing or haying, and
2. periodic prescribed burning.
The use of fire by private landowners in Missouri is a cause of grave concern for some due to Missouri's long history of combating destructive wildlife in the Ozarks.
WSG = bluestems, Indian grass, switchgrass
CSG (cool-season grasses) = fescue, brome, bluegrass
As you review this information, remember that
- Most, if not all, prescribed burning of WSG by private landowners will be conducted during the three-week period following "green-up" in April and May.
- Most cattleman leave the cattle on a cool-season grass pasture over winter.
- Rotational grazing schedules for a mixed warm-season/cool-season grass system has cattle grazing (approximately):
Cool-Season Grasses (brome, fescue) - Green-up - June 1 Native Warm-Season Grasses - June 1-Sept. 1 Cool-Season Grasses - Sept. 1-Nov. 1
Q. How do warm-season grasses benefit wildlife?
A. Native warm-season grasses (WSG) are bunch grasses and stands have more bare ground under and between individual plants and a greater number of associated broadleaf forbs, legumes and insects than do cool-season grasses (CSG). Their bunchy, upright growth form provides better habitat conditions for many upland species of wildlife. Proper management requires that 12 inches of stubble or regrowth remain over winter. Such height provides considerably more cover than 1 to 4 inches of grazed CSG.
Q. Why are stands of WSG desirable to private landowners?
A. Most landowners are planting WSG for two reasons:
1. Summer livestock forage. WSG grows and provides high quality forage during hot summer months when cool-season grasses don't. Landowners without adequate WSG frequently have to feed hay when CSG is summer dormant. Grazing trials have demonstrated that cattle gain significantly more on WSG in the summer than on CSG.
2. Wildlife habitat. Many landowners want native warm-season grasses because it provides superior habitat for several species of wildlife, especially quail and rabbit. Fescue and CSG management have eliminated large amounts of wildlife habitat from today's farms. Planting part of the CSG acreage back into native WSG and properly managing it with grazing, haying and burning is one way to restore wildlife habitat to the farm without compromising (usually enhancing) the economic operation of the farm.
Q. Why is the Conservation Department encouraging private landowners to plant native WSG?
A. These grasses are not grazed closely as are cool-season grasses. Therefore, more cover is present during and after the grazing season. In some cases, grazing or haying will not begin until after many nests have hatched. Warm-season grasses are usually grazed only during the hot summer months (June-August) leaving the remaining cover undisturbed for eight to nine months. Removing the cattle from cool-season grass temporarily also results in better habitat conditions in the CSG.
Q. If it's good for cattle and it's good for wildlife, why aren't more people planting WSG?
A. There are several reasons for this.
1. Lack of information about the grasses. Until recently WSG was not even discussed in forage classes at any high schools or colleges in Missouri. There are few studies dealing with livestock performance on WSG in Missouri, but reams of such studies on CSG. Fertilizer was cheap and much of the state had converted to CSG.
2. Lack of understanding about grazing management. WSG should not be grazed closer than 8 inches. Cattlemen and forage specialist familiar with livestock grazing habits on cool-season grasses feared that controlling grazing height was impossible and that WSG would soon be grazed out. This has not been a problem. Nearly all cattlemen who have established WSG for forage have successfully regulated its use. As more examples of proper management of the grasses are provided around the state, there will be more opportunity for cattlemen to observe and accept that grazing heights can be controlled.
3. Fear of spreading. In some localities, native warm-season grasses (prairies) have been absent for several generations. Re-introducing them is like bringing in a foreign plant. Many landowners had bad experiences with multiflora rose, Johnsongrass or tall fescue, and are wary of something with which they are not familiar. This seems to be particularly true in northeast Missouri.
4. Confusion with other grasses. Southwest Missouri landowners confuse native warm-season grasses with broomsedge and fear it may be poor forage.
5. Fear of the need for periodic burning. We've done a good job of convincing people of the potential danger, damages and liabilities of wildfire. Many of them carry these concerns into considerations of using prescribed burning. Even those who are prepared to use prescribed burning properly are frequently concerned about the feelings of their neighbors.
Q. Is the establishment of warm-season grasses a short-lived "fad" as some people view the conversion of timber to fescue pasture in the Ozarks several years ago?
A. Not likely. The conversion of timber by aerial spraying herbicide or dozing and seeding fescue was economically feasible only when land, fertilizer and herbicides were relatively cheap. Nitrogen fertilizer is made from natural gas and herbicides are made from petroleum, neither of which will be cheap again. Equally important is that single forage system (fescue) did not provide adequate forage during the summer months. However, a single forage system of WSG is not recommended either, since it does not provide adequate forage early in the spring or fall. Agricultural economists predict that the only way livestock operators will survive in the future is with a complementary CSG/WSG system. The WSG being planted in the Midwest are mostly the native species that were here 150 years ago when the European settlers arrived: big bluestem, Indian grass, and switchgrass. Due to a lack of understanding the management needs for maximum livestock production. The trend back toward native WSG shows that we have come full cycle, back to the plants that were here when our ancestors arrived and for centuries before that.
Q. Will acceptance of these grasses result in renewed timber conversion to pasture?
A. Some timber clearing for conversion to grass will probably continue. However, large scale conversion to any grass is no longer economically feasible and even less so for WSG. Seed costs of $40 to $65 per acre are not expected to decline significantly. Native grass seed costs are expensive compared to CSG because WSG seed production per acre is less and harvesting, cleaning and processing the seed is much more labor intensive. Also, WSG grass seed production is not a by-product of haying or grazing as it is with fescue, orchardgrass and brome.
Q. How many acres of WSG are being planted on private land in Missouri each year?
A. The Department is assisting on about 1,000 acres of private land annually. Probably another 500 to 1,000 acres are planted by farmers using other equipment. The number of requests for Conservation Department advice and assistance have increased each year, but the number of acres which we can plant with our six drills is limited to about 1,500 acres (we also plant 800 to 1,000 acres on Department land each year).
Q. Will the Conservation Department increase the number of grass drills to keep up with increased demand?
A. No. We see our present number as the upper limit. We'd like to see farmers, farmer organizations, private companies or Soil and Water Districts take on more of the responsibility. Our equipment would continue to be used in areas where there are few plantings and in areas with the greatest wildlife benefits, e.g., areas with prairie chicken.
Q. What parts of the state have shown the most interest?
A. Early (1968-73) SCS plantings were in Texas, Dallas and Christian counties. Since 1977, the majority of plantings and interest has been in northwest, north central, west central, and in a wide band extending from Kansas City to St. Louis. In short, the original prairie region of the state with the exception of the northeast.
Q. How many acres will be planted to WSG in Missouri in the next 20 years?
A. At the present pace, between 40,000 and 100,000 acres will be planted on private land in the next 20 years. Conceivably, one-fourth to one-third of all the grazeable grassland acreage plus some of the hay land of Missouri could be in native warm-season grasses for maximum economic returns. This would amount to 1 to 2 million acres. Realistically, we estimate only 500,000 to 600,000 acres will be planted in the future.
Q. Why is periodic prescribed burning recommended for native WSG management?
A. Fire was a natural occurrence in the evolution of these grasses. They developed not only a tolerance for fire, but a response to it that allows them to outgrow the less tolerant competition if the burn occurs at the proper time of the year, i.e., just as the WSG begin new growth. It was not until range scientists began experimenting with prescribed fire applied at different times of the year that they discovered this response. They also discovered that proper timing for growth response of native WSG also minimized or eliminated certain adverse effects of fire, i.e., soil erosion, soil moisture loss, plant crown damage, nutrient leaching and even some of the difficulty of fire control. They found that the most effective way of controlling undesirable plants was to burn them during a low point in their carbohydrate root reserves which usually occurs after the undesirable plants have used those reserves to initiate spring growth.
Q. Couldn't mowing, discing, spraying or winter grazing accomplish the same purpose?
A. No. A combination of these treatments would achieve some of the affects of burning, but not all that are needed to maintain the desired grass stand condition. Mowing and brush control herbicides would control many deciduous woody plants, but would not control cool-season grasses nor remove old growth accumulation. It would also be detrimental to desirable broadleaf plants. Atrazine may be used to control cool-season grasses and annual weeds, but it will not reduce old growth accumulation nor control woody plant invasion. Discing may reduce old growth by incorporating it into the soil for more rapid decomposition and recycle tied up nutrients. Discing also may help control woody invasion, but experience has shown that it accelerates the spread cool-season grasses. Winter grazing removes old growth and tramples some of it into the soil, but it also favors the spread of cool-season grasses. In summary, prescribed burning is the most effective and economical tool for properly managing WSG.
Q. What about the effect of burning on wildlife?
A. Most wildlife species that use prairies and planted WSG evolved with them. Simply put, if they could not persist with periodic, untimely and often frequent wildfire, they vanished from the prairie region. With the exception of the pheasant, the same wildlife species here today were here before European man stopped wildfires. Wildlife nesting studies in the Midwest and Southeastern United States have shown that ground nesting birds have a higher nesting success in habitat that is periodically burned. Bobwhite quail exhibit the highest nest density, lowest predation rate and lowest number of acres per successful nest during the first three nesting seasons following a spring burn. Nest success falls off to pre-burn levels in the fourth year.
Q. Won't overgrazing occur as a result of burning these grasses?
A. Burning WSG increases succulence and palatability. Reduced competition from other plants for nutrients and moisture allows greater growth. Cattle select it and eat more, thereby making greater gains. Overgrazing of burned areas must be prevented by regulating cattle stocking rates in the same manner as for unburned pastures.
Q. Won't burning of these grasses reduce organic matter in the soil and increase soil erosion?
A. Let's take these one at a time:
1. Organic matter is an inherent property of the soil that is the result of the growth and decay of plant roots. Little organic matter is returned to the soil from plant parts which grow on the surface. In big bluestem, there are 2 1/2 times as much bulk material in the roots as is produced above the ground. At least 30 percent of the root system is replace each year, thereby supplying the organic matter in the soil. Less than 10 percent comes from the breakdown of material grown on the surface. Heavy accumulations of surface material result in decreased plant growth, decreased root growth and, consequently, decreased soil organic matter.
2. Soil erosion increases as the length of time between burning and spring green-up is increased. When wildfire occurs in the late summer, fall or winter, the soil is exposed to the pounding of raindrops and soil compaction and erosion may be significant. Raindrop impact causes puddling and soil crusting resulting in decreased water infiltration and increased surface runoff. This causes erosion. Fifty-five years of research on burning grasslands at Kansas State University has shown that timing the burn as late in the spring as possible, just after the WSG breaks dormancy but before they exceed 3 inches in new growth, will minimize puddling and crusting and will soon provide a protective layer of grass leaves to intercept raindrops. Burning will also result in increased microbiological activity and root development which breaks down soil minerals to form new soil and release nutrients. In short, late-spring burning of WSG increases soil and soil fertility, it does not decrease it.
Q. How frequent do burns have to be to properly manage WSG or prairies?
A. This depends on the severity of problems and the type of livestock operations. Generally, two consecutive burns in five years are sufficient. In cases of severe CSG infestation or woody invasion, burns may be necessary three years out of five, but mowing the re-sprouts of woody plants after burning or using Atrazine for CSG control could help reduce the frequency. If the planting is for annual hay production, burn only frequently enough to control small sprouts, cedar and cool-season grasses, probably once every three to five years. A growth animal (steer of heifer) operator will want to burn as frequently as possible to take advantage of the 10 to 12 percent greater gains per head of the year of the burn. Under this last situation burns are for maximum livestock production, not WSG maintenance.
Q. Is burning native WSG in the Ozarks as valuable as it is in north Missouri?
A. Basically, yes. Ozark soils are generally less productive, so problems with undesirable plant invasion may be less severe and litter accumulation may be less, but the general advantages/importance is the same.
Q. Can plantings be designed for maximum burning safety and ease?
A. Generally, yes. The most efficient design is to leave or establish a 10- to 12-foot CSG firebreak which can be maintained by mowing, grazing or disking without creating an erosion problem. Problems can also be avoided by locating plantings to take advantage of streams, equipment trails, overgrazed pastures, crop fields or other natural fire barriers. More and more WSG consultants, seed companies, etc., are advising landowners to plant these things into the planting.
Q. How about the native prairies?
A. That's a little more difficult since you can't change the location of the prairie. Streams, roads, trails, and even cow paths can be used where ever practical. Cool-season grass fire lands may be created by close-mowing the boundaries. Plowing or discing a fire lane is also possible, but may increase erosion or create a place for a gully to begin. This could contribute to the destruction of an already vastly reduced natural community.
Q. What level of involvement is the Conservation Department anticipating in prescribed fire on private land?
A. We do not have the manpower nor the time for direct assistance and there are concerns over liability. We are working on an educational slide program for private landowners who have prairies or warm-season grasses or who are considering establishing WSG. Compare this approach, if you will, to our hunter safety program in which we teach hunter safety but do not accompany every hunter to the field for personal instruction.
Our intent is to help landowners organize themselves, locate equipment, obtain weather conditions, recognize hazards and receive volunteer fire department assistance.
Q. Won't training private landowners in prescribed burning result in more wildfires and prescribed burn escapes?
A. Landowners are going to use fire to manage their warm-season grass plantings and prairies. We can either ignore the potential for mistakes and hope nothing goes wrong or we can help them learn to use this management tool properly. The Department's policy and guidelines for use of prescribed burning provides for such training. Not providing these landowners with prescribed burning training is the alternative most likely to result in more escaped prescribed burns and the subsequent wildfires.
