[Jacob-list] ryegrass

[Linda]

Has anyone in the south tried Lespedeza?  It's a legume.  In Florida, it was often used as horse hay.  The forest service plants it in this area (NE Georgia mountain area) for deer forage and to control erosion.  They use Sericea, the perennial variety.  I saw a news story that dairy cattle wouldn't eat it, so many dairy farmers in South Carolina were using goats to clean their pastures as it grows like a weed.  In some of my old (1950's) agriculture books, though, there are pictures of cattle happily grazing on Sericea and it's listed as highly palatable.  Either they changed the Sericea or they changed the cattle, I guess.  Anyway,  I planted alot of it on the banks at the new place to hold the soil and tried harvesting it for my sheep.  They eat it with no problem.  I planted it in a few places in the pasture there and it has survived the last two years with very little rain.  In fact, it flourishes very well.

Here at the old place, we are lucky to have rich black soil that grows anything. This house has been here over 100 years and the "lawn" was untended for many years.  It was interesting to see what grasses adapted best.  The new place is very sandy and has really been a challenge - especially with so little rain.  The orchard grass and bluegrass that is planted in shady areas is doing well, but the sunny areas are mostly sericea, fescue, trefoil and wild strawberry.  We're slowly adding organic material to the soil and you can really see how far I've gotten when you see the difference in the grass.  

Neal,  could you tell us more about the forage turnip?

Linda

On Sat, 24 Aug 2002 21:56:03 -0400, Grose wrote:
>Hi all,
>Those of you below the Mason Dixon will find that  perennial
>ryegrass does not persist in pastures. Not only does it go dormant
>in  hot weather, it dies. Annual ryegrass sprouts NOW through
>December and is  probably the most palatable/highest in energy of
>the grasses that we grow, and  is probably the better bet for
>emergency and temporary winter pastures. The only  thing that will
>persist and provide year-round grazing is endophyte  infected
>fescue. Don't recommend it. If you see animals grazing and
>maintaining weight in our horrid climate in the rough part of the
>summer, they  are probably eating volunteer crabgrass! [Don't tell
>the obsessive/compulsive  lawn people that you are married to.]
>I tried an improved forage turnip in a pasture this  summer to see
>how it would grow in the heat. Much to my surprise, every seed  came
>up an produced a tremendous amount of forage.
>
>Neal Grose
>North Carolina
>

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