NEDOC, it is a small world.

This is kind of for anyone that is interested in restoring a pasture back to native prairie health. Almost all of our invasive foreign grass are "cool season". That means they grow in the cool moist spring and fall. Most of our native grasses are "warm season". They grow in the hot summer.

There are three major cool season invasive grasses. Brome, Kentucky bluegrass and fescues. We have to attack them when they are growing and the warm season plants are not.

We can spray with Round-up in the early spring when these grasses are growing but the warm season plants aren't.

We can mow the area in the mid spring to set the cool season grasses back and release competition for the warm seasons.

We can burn the area in June (in the Upper Midwest) to set back the cool seasons.

We can use cattle to graze the area very hard in the spring to set back the cool seasons. In Oklahoma, many ranchers buy calves in the fall, run them all winter on their pastures and sell them in late spring/early summer. Their pastures are in great shape compared to ranchers that have regular cow/calf operations. Bill Whitney has used this technique very successfully with Nebraska pastures.

The very best technique is to use all of these forms of management as needed.

Norm Kopecky