Landowner Assistance

On the Ground: Add Native Grass Pastures for Fat Cows and Healthy Grasslands

Adding native warm-season grass pastures to your cool-season grazing system will boost your summer weight gains and enhance habitat for grassland wildlife. Cool-season grasses, such as brome and fescue, can’t hold up to summer’s heat, and they can’t support ground-nesting birds, such as quail. Warm-season grasses (bluestems, Indian grass, switchgrass) grow most in the late spring and summer. Turning your herd out to graze these native grasses during their prime keeps your cattle feeding on high-nutrition forage the entire grazing season. Adding native grass pastures to your grazing system will also provide food and cover for grassland wildlife. For example, clump-forming native grasses will produce random patches of bare ground that quail chicks need to survive. To learn more about how adding native grass pastures to your rotational grazing system can produce fat cows and healthy grasslands, visit .

Control Autumn Olive

Cut trees and apply herbicide now.

Originally used for windbreaks and wildlife cover, non-native autumn olive has become an invasive pest. To control it, cut the plant off at the main stem and immediately apply herbicide to the stump now through September. This treatment kills root systems and prevents resprouting. In addition, applying herbicide specifically to the stump reduces the chance of damaging nearby desirable vegetation. Herbicides recommended include glyphosate, triclopyr and picloram. For more details about controlling autumn olive and other invasive species, visit online .

Grant Benefits FFA Chapters

Wildlife management and study on ag lands

Whether your  chapter is planning an on-site project or exploring a collaborative effort with a local landowner, the United Sportsmen’s League Wildlife Conservation Grant Program can help. Available through competitive application, each grant is worth up to $500. Funding comes from a cooperative effort between the USL and MDC. Any Missouri FFA chapter is eligible to apply. Recently, the FFA chapter at Chillicothe High School in Livingston County won $500 to reclaim a wetland area at their school farm. “The grant funds will help us improve water quality in our downstream pond,” said Chillicothe FFA chapter leader Rusty Black. Deadline for application is Nov. 15. Visit  to download the application, or contact Veronica Feilner at (573) 522-4115, ext. 3285.