Take a walk with me through the prairie
- Thread starter Native Hunter
- Start date
Tree Spud
5 year old buck +
I like your approach as I have a lot to learn ... I am doing more habitat building focused on many species, not just deer.
Reminds me of Aldo Leopold "For the Health of The Land"!
Native Hunter
5 year old buck +
I think you are going to like the next pics I plan on posting. They will illustrate the difference between desirable native clump grasses and Other grasses like Johnsongrass when it comes to both small game and deer. Thanks for following.
Jordan Selsor
5 year old buck +
Excited about this Steve! Thanks for sharing! Perfect timing too! This is my next venture! Been researching like crazy lately! It’s been a bit overwhelming honestly. I have a beautiful 20 acre fescue field that I plan to convert to all natives in 2021! I am going to play with some natives in my smaller fields this fall. John Roemhild tells me I can add switch, big blue stem and others into my fall grain plots. Going to give it a try to create some security cover among my fall plot locations. I am having some logging done now an plan to allocate some funds for converting my big Festus field. Super excited about this venture if you can’t tell lol:)
Native Hunter
5 year old buck +
That's awesome Jordan. I think we will have some things here that will potentially help you in your new venture. I also think John is correct. Adding some cover with tall native grasses can make a lot of difference in how much daylight use that you get in your fall plots.
hesseu
5 year old buck +
I'm in SWMO...We sprayed and killed around 25 acres of fescue 2-3 years ago. The amount of NWSG's in the seed bank would blow your mind. I re-sprayed earlier this year to kill any that was still left. Plan on a dormant season disk running through it after deer season.
I say all that to say, you may just want spray at first green-up next year and see what comes through. We had the grasses, now I need / want the forbes.
Rit
5 year old buck +
Hate is a pretty strong word. I don’t hate my field. Very happy that I was able to establish such a solid stand of Switch in less than 3 years. I think for me the issue is I was under this grand illusion that planting a big monoculture of switch was the answer. Kind of a “plant it and they will come” deal. If I had your diversity there is no doubt that I would see more use. Even with two acres of food near the switch I just don’t see the deer use I was looking for. I can walk thru it today and kick up all kinds of birds and rabbits but that wasn’t my objective. As much as I dislike the thought of killing some of it off that’s the plan this summer. Maybe 2 or 3 browse pockets to create more edge and diversity within the grass. I haven’t figured out the best approach to this yet but eventually I will come up with a plan. As always looking forward to your updates.
woodduck
5 year old buck +
Native, do you find that the Ironweed is still invasive now that your prairie is established?
I have tried to promote Ironweed in NWSG strips because of the stalks rigidness through winter. Plus me and the bees like its purple flowers. I haven't found it to be invasive here. At least in the few years I have been observing it. I wonder if it could be because of different soil types or location?
Native Hunter
5 year old buck +
No, once I controlled the initial flush from the seedbank, Ironweed is not a problem at all now. Like you, I enjoy the purple flowers and enjoy seeing a few of them here and there. No one would believe how many poke weed and ironweed plants came up initially. Neither of them are an issue now that there is so much competition. However, if I had just stood back and done nothing, they would be the dominant plants now. Plant communities are like a lot of industries - whoever gets the initial advantage becomes hard to displace (i.e. Microsoft and Apple.....).
Native Hunter
5 year old buck +
That is awesome. I got some great forbs out of the seedbank but tall native grasses were not present on my place.
Native Hunter
5 year old buck +
A few things before we take off walking again:
- I want to answer a few questions that have been asked and give some more background.
- I’m going to rate some plants between low and high in terms of browse preference. This will be based on what I see, and the rating can be very different at other places. For instance, in areas with a shortage of food, deer will readily consume some of the least palatable plants. And there are some regional differences as well. What I rate as low browse preference might be gobbled up quickly somewhere else. For instance, deer will barely touch a pokeweed on my place, but I’ve heard many of you say it is a preferred browse – that’s just the way it is with deer and regional differences. As a general rule, there is an abundance of food in my area relative to deer numbers, and deer are picky eaters here.
- My prairie was put in by doing two gly spraying in the spring and then drilling the seed. It was through the CREP program and was fescue pasture before I started.
- Pounds of seed per acre are pretty low in this program to hold installation costs down. That keeps the grasses from being too thick and allows some space for native plants to come back from the seedbank. Initially I saw this as a negative, but now I see it as a positive. A high percentage of the forbs that I like in the prairie came from the seedbank. I spent a lot of time initially spot spraying the ones that I didn’t like, and that has helped the overall composition of the plant mix to be more what I prefer.
- The prairie has been in roughly 10 years. I’m not taking the time to go into details about the plantings, because not all of the fields were done exactly the same. However, below I will show the introduced species that were planted:
- Big Bluestem
- Little Bluestem
- Indian Grass
- Switchgrass
- Side Oats Grama (gone within 2 years)
- Virginia Wild Rye (barely hanging on at a few low shady spots)
- Partridge Pea
- Blackeyed Susan
- Illinois Bundleflower (gone within 2 years)
- Purple Coneflower (still there be not strong)(disking would bring it back)
- Big Bluestem
- I’m all for the proliferation of butterflies and bunnies, but I mainly manage for deer. I want my cover to be tall and robust so that deer will use it in daylight. Of course, having lower growing, preferred forbs mixed in is a big plus – food and cover combined.
- Managing a prairie is not for everyone. A prairie in my neck of the woods is an early successional habitat, and plants further up the successional ladder (briers, trees, etc.) are constantly trying to overtake it. It takes some work to keep everything going well, and you must enjoy that work or you won’t do it. Basically, I used to be a runner, but now I get my exercise doing habitat work – and love every minute of it.
- That’s enough for now. When I come back, we will start the walk again…..
Last edited:
jwill1776
5 year old buck +
Awesome looking natives!
I'm about 10 years into managing a a few prairie plots, certainly learned a lot over the years.
I've noticed that the recommended pounds of seed per acre for seeding has gone down over the years, I think part of this is to reduce the number of NWSG that tend to take over and force the forbs out.
Do you guys do much for burning? I burn nearly every year just as the cool season grasses start to green up and still have good diversity with forbs making up a high percent.
I'm about 10 years into managing a a few prairie plots, certainly learned a lot over the years.
I've noticed that the recommended pounds of seed per acre for seeding has gone down over the years, I think part of this is to reduce the number of NWSG that tend to take over and force the forbs out.
Do you guys do much for burning? I burn nearly every year just as the cool season grasses start to green up and still have good diversity with forbs making up a high percent.
I dont burn at all anymore - but the recommendation for Blackland Prairie in my area is burn in Feb followed by a burn 18 months later in August. And keep on that rotation.
I dont burn anymore after having a fire get out. Past five years, it has been too wet to burn in Feb and burn bans in Aug. couldnt have burned if I had wanted to.
Native Hunter
5 year old buck +
I've never burned, but I know it is a good thing. At my place there is just too much risk from burning, and all of my fence rows make it a challenge too.
Native Hunter
5 year old buck +
Let’s get up and continue walking
First, we will examine an area that was mowed this year in Mid May and see what is taking place about a month later. You can easily see the clumps of native grasses starting to shoot up. We will talk about the different grasses later on, but today, I want to focus on the areas between the grass clumps. This is where the forbs (both annuals and perennials) fill in part of the empty spaces. These empty spaces are like highways where rabbits and other small creature travel, feed and escape predators.
This is one of the things that sets beneficial native grasses apart from introduced species like Johnson Grass. You don’t want a monoculture of grass, and that’s what Johnson Grass will create. It builds a fibrous root system and chokes out everything else. Another difference is that Johnson Grass will just flatten in the winter, but the right native grasses and forbs will stand the winter well and continue to provide valuable cover through the next spring.
Native grasses can also tiller and fill in space, but it happens to a lesser extent than with Johnson Grass. The pictures below show a 10 year old prairie, and you will see that there is still a lot of space between the clumps. At some other places in the fields, the spaces are even greater.
Both the grasses and forbs are important. The grasses provide tall security cover for deer, and the forbs provide food for them and other creatures. Some forbs also get very tall and provide a dual benefit – both food and cover.
The first pictures below is taken from the side, and it appears that we only have grass. But look in the pictures below it where we are looking straight down, and you will see the highways between the grass clumps and some forbs coming up. After we look at these pictures we will discuss each of the forbs we see.
In this first picture you see three forbs. In the middle is Tickseed Sunflower, near the top left is Oxeye Daisy, and at the lower right is one small Carolina Horsenettle plant.
In this next picture you see mostly Partridge Pea with just a little Common Ragweed on the right side of the picture.
Here is a better picture of Common Ragweed:
In this post today we have talked about the difference in Native Grasses and invasive species like Johnson Grass. We also identified five forbs – Tickseed Sunflower, Oxeye Daisy, Carolina Horsenettle, Partridge Pea and Common Ragweed. We will stop now, and when we come back we will talk about the attributes of these five forbs that we identified. After that we will look at pictures of many other forbs growing in the prairie and discuss them.
First, we will examine an area that was mowed this year in Mid May and see what is taking place about a month later. You can easily see the clumps of native grasses starting to shoot up. We will talk about the different grasses later on, but today, I want to focus on the areas between the grass clumps. This is where the forbs (both annuals and perennials) fill in part of the empty spaces. These empty spaces are like highways where rabbits and other small creature travel, feed and escape predators.
This is one of the things that sets beneficial native grasses apart from introduced species like Johnson Grass. You don’t want a monoculture of grass, and that’s what Johnson Grass will create. It builds a fibrous root system and chokes out everything else. Another difference is that Johnson Grass will just flatten in the winter, but the right native grasses and forbs will stand the winter well and continue to provide valuable cover through the next spring.
Native grasses can also tiller and fill in space, but it happens to a lesser extent than with Johnson Grass. The pictures below show a 10 year old prairie, and you will see that there is still a lot of space between the clumps. At some other places in the fields, the spaces are even greater.
Both the grasses and forbs are important. The grasses provide tall security cover for deer, and the forbs provide food for them and other creatures. Some forbs also get very tall and provide a dual benefit – both food and cover.
The first pictures below is taken from the side, and it appears that we only have grass. But look in the pictures below it where we are looking straight down, and you will see the highways between the grass clumps and some forbs coming up. After we look at these pictures we will discuss each of the forbs we see.
In this first picture you see three forbs. In the middle is Tickseed Sunflower, near the top left is Oxeye Daisy, and at the lower right is one small Carolina Horsenettle plant.
In this next picture you see mostly Partridge Pea with just a little Common Ragweed on the right side of the picture.
Here is a better picture of Common Ragweed:
In this post today we have talked about the difference in Native Grasses and invasive species like Johnson Grass. We also identified five forbs – Tickseed Sunflower, Oxeye Daisy, Carolina Horsenettle, Partridge Pea and Common Ragweed. We will stop now, and when we come back we will talk about the attributes of these five forbs that we identified. After that we will look at pictures of many other forbs growing in the prairie and discuss them.
Let’s get up and continue walking
First, we will examine an area that was mowed this year in Mid May and see what is taking place about a month later. You can easily see the clumps of native grasses starting to shoot up. We will talk about the different grasses later on, but today, I want to focus on the areas between the grass clumps. This is where the forbs (both annuals and perennials) fill in part of the empty spaces. These empty spaces are like highways where rabbits and other small creature travel, feed and escape predators.
This is one of the things that sets beneficial native grasses apart from introduced species like Johnson Grass. You don’t want a monoculture of grass, and that’s what Johnson Grass will create. It builds a fibrous root system and chokes out everything else. Another difference is that Johnson Grass will just flatten in the winter, but the right native grasses and forbs will stand the winter well and continue to provide valuable cover through the next spring.
Native grasses can also tiller and fill in space, but it happens to a lesser extent than with Johnson Grass. The pictures below show a 10 year old prairie, and you will see that there is still a lot of space between the clumps. At some other places in the fields, the spaces are even greater.
Both the grasses and forbs are important. The grasses provide tall security cover for deer, and the forbs provide food for them and other creatures. Some forbs also get very tall and provide a dual benefit – both food and cover.
The first pictures below is taken from the side, and it appears that we only have grass. But look in the pictures below it where we are looking straight down, and you will see the highways between the grass clumps and some forbs coming up. After we look at these pictures we will discuss each of the forbs we see.
In this first picture you see three forbs. In the middle is Tickseed Sunflower, near the top left is Oxeye Daisy, and at the lower right is one small Carolina Horsenettle plant.
In this next picture you see mostly Partridge Pea with just a little Common Ragweed on the right side of the picture.
Here is a better picture of Common Ragweed:
In this post today we have talked about the difference in Native Grasses and invasive species like Johnson Grass. We also identified five forbs – Tickseed Sunflower, Oxeye Daisy, Carolina Horsenettle, Partridge Pea and Common Ragweed. We will stop now, and when we come back we will talk about the attributes of these five forbs that we identified. After that we will look at pictures of many other forbs growing in the prairie and discuss them.
what do you do to keep the grass from filling in and becoming mostly a mono culture? That is my biggest problem
