Controlling Winter Annual Bromes
Cheatgrass — sometimes called downy brome or wild oats — is an annual weedy grass that can be a problem in pastures, particularly in central and western Nebraska.
Cheatgrass often invades thin or overgrazed pastures in fall and early spring. Livestock dislike grazing this grass after it becomes mature, and over time it can take over and make large patches in a pasture.
Research by the University of Nebraska evaluated herbicides for controlling cheatgrass. Products containing rimsulfuron and imazapic (Plateau®) can provide good control of cheatgrass from a single application, but control can vary widely from year to year depending on when the application is made, maturity of cheatgrass plants, and the weather patterns. A one-time management operation, utilizing grazing, mowing or a non-residual herbicide like rimsulfuron or imazapic, usually does not have a lasting impact on the cheatgrass in the seedbank. To reduce the seedbank, control needs to be close to 100% and repeated over several years.
Rejuvra™ is a new rangeland herbicide product from Bayer that works differently from existing cheatgrass herbicides. Rejuvra™ has limited activity on emerged plants and only controls seedlings as they germinate, so it is best to apply Rejuvra™ in early fall before seeds germinate. This herbicide can provide control up to two years post-application.
For warm-season grass pastures, there is another option. You can use glyphosate herbicides after top growth of these grasses has gone dormant due to a hard freeze or two. This can kill emerged annual brome seedlings or other cool-season species without harming the desirable grasses. With any herbicide, always read and follow label directions.
With these herbicide options and proper grazing management, your pastures can develop thicker stands of the more desirable grasses.
Grazing for Interseeding
Pastures and hay meadows provide higher quality feed, are more productive, and require fewer inputs when they have good forage legumes growing in them.
Outside of moisture, nitrogen is often the limiting nutrient in pasture production. While commercial fertilizer may be a quick and easy option, it’s costly. Instead, let’s grow our own nitrogen using legumes.
Do you have a pasture area or hay meadow that is relatively free of weeds and makes up no more than about 15% of your total pasture acres? If so, here is what I want you to do. From now until that grass will grow no more this year, graze that grass hard. Grub it down, then graze it some more.
Now why would I recommend overgrazing? Surely it will hurt the grass. Well, that's exactly what we want. Next spring, you will interseed legumes like red clover, white clover and alfalfa into that grass to make it more nutritious and productive. We may even consider a winter frost seeding if conditions are right.
The biggest challenge to establishing legumes into a grass sod is competition by that existing grass on new, slow-growing legume seedlings. Anything you do to reduce competition and slow down grass growth will help. Overgrazing this fall prior to next spring’s seeding will weaken the grass and slow its spring growth, thus giving new legume seedlings a better chance to get started. Areas that experienced drought this summer may have seen unplanned overgrazing this summer — interseeding may be a way to make some lemonade out of that particular lemon. Of course, all this depends on moisture next spring to work.
While you’re at it, also collect some soil samples. Then analyze them and apply any needed fertilizer. Legumes especially need good phosphorus and the proper soil pH.
So, add some legumes to your pasture next spring. Graze your grass this fall until virtually nothing is left. Then, keep grazing a couple weeks more just to make sure. Legumes you add next spring will establish better because of it.
Hunting Rights and Land Leases
Amid market volatility, some producers may be exploring additional income opportunities, such as hunting. This often raises the question: who holds the hunting rights when land is leased?
In a written cropland or pasture lease, hunting rights can be specified. If the lease does not explicitly reserve those rights for the landlord, they generally belong to the tenant for the duration of the lease.
For unwritten cropland leases, hunting rights also typically default to the tenant unless both parties agree otherwise. This is because, without specific restrictions, tenants have full rights to use the land excluding others — including the landlord — during the lease term. This can come as a surprise to some landowners who assume they automatically retain those rights.
Verbal grazing and pasture leases are different. Since most end before hunting season, hunting rights usually revert to the landowner once the lease concludes.
To avoid misunderstandings, it’s important to review your written lease and consult Nebraska law regarding verbal cropland and pasture leases.
