it isnt that I hate a prairie. I love a prairie. When I had bird dogs, I used to spend a month a year hunting sharptails, huns, prairie chickens, and pheasants in he northern prairie. When I got my own place with 20 acres of pasture, right in the middle of a band of isolated Black-land Prarie region - I couldnt wait to convert the fescue to native warm season grass. That is the first thing I started to do. But I had no experience with prairie in my own area - I was going off all the benefits I had read about native warm season grass. Even had folks from G&F, NRCS, and Natural Heritage Commission visit my place and set me on my way. Talked to several Local folks I knew and they said dont plant switch - since I have hogs - all the cover will attract them and become infested with hogs. Most of my nwsg is little bluestem. It looks great in the fall - a rolling sea of red - waving like the ocean in the breeze. Problem is, if you dont have turkeys, quail, and rabbits - they wont materialize from nwsg. Nwsg doesnt make quail - quail make quail.
Before I converted my pasture to nwsg - which took years - there was a lot of fescue, johnson grass, milkweed, and some native flowering forbs - like delphiniums, penstemons, butterfly weed, etc. As the nwsg prospered, the forbs became almost non-existent. My next door neighbor’s cattle pasture had more diversity, more song birds, more pollinators, and more deer.
I talked to the folks from the NRCS and they recommended some flowering forb species to Plant that might compete better with the grass. But, the Natural Heritage Commission folks advised against it because the recommended varieties were not native. They recommended reducing the percentage of grass component in the stand. That is now what I work towards. I disk and spray and keep the nwsg component to probably 20%. I would love to have a true grass dominated prairie. But, I dont have the wildlife component that will take advantage of a grass dominated habitat - other than hogs. 20 acres of nwsg is not enough to support populations of otherwise scarce prairie wildlife species.
You can only imagine how I felt when I sprayed a grass killing herbicide and then put a disk to my hard earned grass that took years to grow. Made me sick. And even at that, I have left a few acres of grass just to look at. After a few years of reducing the grass component, I now have a variety of forbs moving back in. Milkweed is now thick, as are the monarchs, deer are out in it every morning - feeding on a variety of plants. Bluebirds, indigos, painted buntings, blue grosbeaks - and a host of other song birds are now common. Honey bees, bumble bees, and a host of other pollinators are prevalent throughout the area.
Just because apple and pear trees do not do well in high pH, calcareous soils does not mean I “hate” them. I would love to have acres of producing apple trees - but I have proven my efforts are not rewarded by planting apple trees on my ground. Rather, we may have to accept what works best on our own ground - and not fight it. Just because a particular plant species does not produce anticipated benefits, does not mean we “hate” it - in fact, the total opposite may be true. And proof again, just because something works in one area, doesnt necessarily mean it works in another area.
Really looking forward to some great prairie pictures and information. I envy what you have.
