Replacing strong fescue pasture with native grasses

[southernblues]

Another part of our land has about 40 acre fescue pasture. We rent out to neighbor and they over-graze the pasture every 2 yrs with feedlot of cattle. Its grazed over pretty good right now.

Question - has anyone had a tract this big in fescue, removed and replaced with native grasses? Cost? Method? How long did it take?

 

[oldandnew]

I've done it twice. First issue is fescue grazed down, like you say, is getting ready to return full flush. The endophyte which affects livestock revitalizes fescue under stress. More stress better growth, and recovery. I would disc it spray it and get a competing early growth over it to crowd it out. Even then, it's so well adapted, that after a few years, it will again dominate the plant structure of the pasture. It will take a herculean effort to keep it beat back, especially if neighboring ground has a strong stand. Keep breaking the fescue life cycle, by selecting against it's preferences, and more importantly select for the preferred species and you will have some luck. But it's a beast. I think your best bet is a prepared seed bed like a row crop prep with oats as a cover crop, after you disc, spray, assualt and violate the fescue in everyway you can think off.

 

[Wirehairs]

Let the Fescue regrow to 8-12 inches then spray it with 2-3 quarts per acre of a 4# glyphosate. (roundup) Generic roundup should cost you about $2.50/ quart. Even though most gylphosates come loaded(surfactant in) I would still put another 4 oz an acre in of non-ionic surfactant and an water conditioner/AMS source. Spray at 10 gallons solution per acre. This should give you an excellent kill. I would then just no-till the native grasses into the dead sod.

 

[jaytee]

I've never done an area that big but I have done a couple of smaller fields. One was 5 acres and the other area was about 12 total and they were both rank with fescue. Your not going to kill it by discing or plowing it under and then spraying it upon regrowth. The system I've found that works best takes a year to complete but after you start pricing NWSG seed, you'll see that its well worth the time and effort to do it right. I first started with a fall application of roudup at a heavy dose. You gotta hammer this stuff. And dont forget to add in some sprayable ammonia sulfate, it makes the roundup work better, and also add some surfactant to help it stick to the grass. After you've done the fall app and the stuff is dead, get out the tractor and disc in some fire lines around the perimiter of the field, 10 feet wide or more. The next thing you will do is wait. Wait for a good day in late winter or very early spring and burn off the dead vegitation. You will probably need to get the tractor out and work up your fire lines again and make sure they're wide enough. After you've burned off the field, give it time to grow back about 8 inches or so of new growth and then hammer it again with a hot dose of roundup. However this time add some Plateau or Journey to the mix. Its a pre-emergent for fescue but it enhances the growth of the NWSG seed. Its awesome stuff. After you've hit it for the second time with the roundup mix, rent a drill designed for NWSG seed if you dont have one and drill the seed at the recommended depth and rate according to your seed supplier or if you have a private lands rep from your Conservation dept. or game commision, use them for advice. You can plant the next day if needed. I used this regimine that was spelled out for me by my Private Lands rep from the MDC and it worked to perfection. Also check on cost share money from your local NRCS office or Conservation department. If you use cost share money, they should provide you with a planting playbook, so to speak, spelling out exactly what you need to do and you'll have to follow their guidelines if your using their money. Sorry for the long post but this stuff is expensive to do and time consuming, just trying to help you save time and money. Hope it helps.