This message is from: Melinda Schumacher <melinda.schumac...@gmail.com>
ooooh! A fount of knowledge! I am impressed. :) Do you have any information about reed canary grass grown in Ohio? I couldn't find much at all on the web. thanks, Melinda On Sat, Jan 24, 2009 at 11:12 AM, Cherrie Nolden <prairieparad...@yahoo.com>wrote: > This message is from: Cherrie Nolden <prairieparad...@yahoo.com> > > Hi Cheryl, > > We feed our Fjords native prairie grass (they harvest it for themselves > year-round), of which a large component is little bluestem. Also mixed in > there is big bluestem, indiangrass, switchgrass, downy brome, sideoats > grama, buffalo grass, blue grama and lots of forbs. Both little and big > bluestem are decreasers in a grazed native prairie, which means that > livestock seek them out like kids seek candy, thus the percent of those > species in the stand decreases as grazing pressure increases (overgrazing). > > Big bluestem is preferred by livestock, but would be harder to grow in > Colorado where native short-grass prairie is predominant. The Flint Hills > region of Kansas is essentially bluestem-dominated range. This region of the > country is where the majority of the beef produced in the US is grazed as > stockers. The range is intensively grazed and burned every year for > maximizing productivity of the range and gains on the stockers. > > Some producers will put up hay on this ground. If you are buying bluestem > hay, get the bales that have been put up between late June and early July. > This is when the plant is 10-12 inches high and is at the peak for quality > and palatability. Just be sure that the seller certifies it blister beetle > free. > > Our Fjords eat it at every stage but will tend to select other plants once > the bluestem heads out. The desire of livestock for eating those fuzzy seed > heads has been likened to our enjoyment of eating styrofoam peanuts by a > presenter at the Kansas Grazing Lands Coalition Native Rangeland School that > I attended in 2007. Very low palatability. > > Bluestem is a warm season grass, with a different carbohydrate structure > than cool season grasses (brome, orchard, fescue, bluegrass, quackgrass, > timothy). According to an October 2000 publication by UW-Extension entitled > "Native Grasses for Warm Season Pastures," warm season grasses contain > "higher fiber levels and lower relative feed values" than cool season > pastures. "There is some evidence that these compounds are digested > differently than the fiber in cool season grasses and that our current > quality analyses do not adequately reflect the digestibility of warm season > grasses." I haven't personally had the time to see if more recent research > has been done in this area for warm season grasses. > > The Iowa State University book, "Pasture Management Guide for Livestock > Producers," shows big bluestem as being fair for hay production, good for > rotational grazing, has good palatability, and doesn't contain any > anti-quality components (alkaloids, coumarin, cyanogenic glycosides, > endophytes, glycosides, tannins, photosensitization compounds). The scale > for this ranking is: Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor. > > Cherrie > 1dr Fjords > > --- On Fri, 1/23/09, Cheryl Gioia <che...@finefjords.com> wrote: > > > > Does anyone feed bluestem grass hay? I'm not familiar > > with it.Does anyone > > have any information about it? > > Thanks, > > Cheryl > > Important FjordHorse List Links: > Subscription Management: http://tinyurl.com/5msa7e > FH-L <http://tinyurl.com/5msa7eFH-L> Archives: http://tinyurl.com/rcepw > Classified Ads: http://tinyurl.com/5b5g2f Important FjordHorse List Links: Subscription Management: http://tinyurl.com/5msa7e FH-L Archives: http://tinyurl.com/rcepw Classified Ads: http://tinyurl.com/5b5g2f
