Summer Grasses Under Dryland - Forages in the Cross Timbers Area under the direction of Dr. James (Jim) Pierre Muir Associate Professor, Forage Ecologist Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center, Stephenville Texas



	Ag Programs » Forages in the Cross Timbers


	Links to: Winter Legumes, Winter Grasses, Summer Legumes: Dryland - Irrigation, Summer Grasses: Dryland - Irrigation

	Summer Grasses Under Dryland: Annuals and Perennials

	Annuals:

	A few annual grasses are seeded dryland but are susceptible to drought summers. Historically, the following have been successfully planted in our area: Pearl millet Sorghum-sudan grass Some "weedy", self-reseeding annual warm-season grasses may be useful in some situations. Some of these may surprise people since they have traditionally been considered noxious weeds in cultivated row crops or perennial pastures. But they are very aggressive, reseed readily, very digestible and highly nutritious if grazed early in their life cycle. Commercially available seed is sometimes problematic, but two promising naturalized annual grasses include: Colorado grass Crabgrass Pigweed Believe it or not, there is pigweed (careless weed) seed commercially available and it may be the best forage option for some production systems. Pigweed establishes easily, is highly digestible, palatable to all ruminants, including deer, and will self-reseed if not over-grazed. Drawbacks include nitrate poisoning if stressed (Twain’s toxicity page), short life cycle and stigma associated with being considered a weed in row crops. We have looked at it for goat pastures and find it very promising. Muir, J.P., and S.A. Weiss. Maize supplement for wethers on cultivated summer pasture or mesquite rangeland. Small Ruminant Research. (submitted). Goodwin, J.D., J.P. Muir, R.D. Wittie and T.F. Brown. 2004. Goat weight gains and forage selectivity in mixed grass-forb silvo-pastoral systems. Small Ruminant Research 52:53-62.	Redroot pigweed Pigweed browsed by goats

	Perennial Summer Legumes

	Summer perennial grasses are, at present, the most common cultivated pasture in the Cross Timbers. Most are Bermuda grass, with common, coastal and Tifton 85 being the most prominent. More details on these can be found at: Bermudagrass Eastern gamagrass–a native Kleingrass Switchgrass–a native WWB Dahl bluestem We are conducting quite a few plot trials on varieties, fertility requirements and management of perennial summer grasses. We will post these as they come out.


	Links to: Winter Legumes, Winter Grasses, Summer Legumes: Dryland - Irrigation, Summer Grasses: Dryland - Irrigation


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