Switchgrass Strategy

[MN Slick]

Looking for some strategy input on planting switch to encourage bedding within my CRP. The open areas in the picture were planted to WSG's (switch, big and little blue) back in 2014. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to take and there is little evidence of WSG's at this time. Plenty of other weeds and they bed it in now but I'd like to enhance it. My plan is to prep the ground this fall for drilling switch grass.

See pics of the area and a topo showing the terrain. My thought is to seed the area in green. Cost is a factor so I'm trying to get the most bang for the expense. In general deer prefer to bed about 1/3 the way down the ridge so my thought was to seed along that elevation hoping they'd use the switch as a "backstop"/lay in the switch/ or maybe lay in the shorter stuff in the horseshoe area.

Anyone have any thoughts or suggestsions? Thanks

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I would burn it off in the spring and hit it with gly a week later. You will only be killing the cool season grasses at that time. Seed your mix and hope for the best. I can say that best practices would be to mow it a couple times that first year. The second year would also be nice to get one mowing in. If it is just a grass mix you could hit it with 24d that second year to control broad leaves and fall seed a wild flower component at that time. If you mix in any flowers initially it makes chemical management un realistic.

 

[j-bird]

Enhancing a bedding area is a tricky thing to mess with in my opinion. The old saying, "Don't fix it if it isn't broken" comes to mind.

If I felt like I had to do something....I would try to be more strategic in my switch application. Maybe look into plugs and then only target a small area and then over time work my way to the other areas. Large planting is switch means roughly 2 or 3 years of working with it and disturbing the area your trying to improve. This seems counter productive and still may not improve anything.

What exactly are you trying to "improve"? How would you measure an improvement? Reason I ask is that I fear the area is only going to hold so many doe groups and if your trying to stack them in this area....you need to take into account the social aspect of these does groups...which tend to get possessive and not like other groups.

I assume the deer bed here because of the sight advantage they get with the slope to be able to see below them. Then the weeds and the rest of the slope above them the wind carries scent to them. This means these bedding areas are going to shift to some extent as the wind does.

Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[Bill]

Just curious what little evidence of WSG means?

Is there some? Was there a time when there was more than now?
S.T. May be on to something with burning and spray. Maybe even just spraying. There may be enough seed in the ground already that it will grow without reseeding if you knock back the cool season stuff.

 

[MN Slick]

Jbird, your point of leave well enough alone might be the best plan. Doesn't help me justify buying a no till drill though. LOL. I need to put it to use if I'm dropping that kind of coin!

Right now there is bedding in the draw to the west and random bedding in the CRP which is fine for the way we hunt this area now. If they were to relate to the switch we could develop some rut set ups for south wind hunts as bucks work the switch grass for does. We are bowhunters so targeted rather than random bedding would sure help in the sea of CRP grass. Simply put, we need more morning rut spots on this farm. In general it sets up better for evening hunting. Note: farm totals 140 acres, the images show about 40.

 

[MN Slick]

Just curious what little evidence of WSG means?

Is there some? Was there a time when there was more than now?
S.T. May be on to something with burning and spray. Maybe even just spraying. There may be enough seed in the ground already that it will grow without reseeding if you knock back the cool season stuff.

By little evidence I'm saying I just don't see it. I do like the idea of spraying it to see if we can release it. It should still be there ready to flourish. We burned some of it in 2017........along with 10 acres of the neighbors pasture so no more burning for me!

 

[Bill]

Jbird, your point of leave well enough alone might be the best plan. Doesn't help me justify buying a no till drill though. LOL. I need to put it to use if I'm dropping that kind of coin!

Right now there is bedding in the draw to the west and random bedding in the CRP which is fine for the way we hunt this area now. If they were to relate to the switch we could develop some rut set ups for south wind hunts as bucks work the switch grass for does. We are bowhunters so targeted rather than random bedding would sure help in the sea of CRP grass. Simply put, we need more morning rut spots on this farm. In general it sets up better for evening hunting. Note: farm totals 140 acres, the images show about 40.

Sound like my place.
My fix to the problem is....sleep in :)

All bets off during the rut though.

 

[MilkweedManiac]

From personal experience, if you have a ton of hard to kill weeds (i.e. Johnson or carpet grasses like crab or goose) it would be a good idea to spray this fall. At least that is what I am doing. I tried to start in the spring this year , and even though I am seeing switch, it has been slowed and stunted by taller or wider growing clumps of grasses. Like it was frost-seeded in February and I’m seeing 6-8” switch everywhere down beneath the taller growth.

Best plan I’ve read about for a weed collection like that is LC’s advice of oust or sfm 75. I bought some SFM-75 from chemical warehouse and am going to blast this fall and then do Gly/Simazine/2,4-d before greenup in the spring.

Just what I have learned from my first try.

 

[buckdeer1]

I also planted NWSG and it gets a couple foot tall at best but the switch will be 6ft easy.I prefer to frost seed or drill while still cold and I like that I can drill switch since it's beardless seed.If it was me I would spray before the grasses quit growing and drill into it in around march.I have been doing this and get really good growth the first year.I usually keep mowed about a foot tall the first year

 

[MN Slick]

Thanks guys. I'm going to start mowing and spraying this spring and see what pops up.