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Recovering from a drought
Kansas Spring is here. After several years of brown springs, it looks like we might just have a green one, complete with wildflowers and lush grasses. It even smells green. But looks can be deceiving on native rangelands of our area. In our part of the world, we have perennial grasses that rely on extensive root systems and the carbohydrates stored within those roots to grow each year. Roots don't last forever. In fact, a healthy grass plant replaces about 25 percent of its root mass each summer. When a plant is undergoing drought stress, this does not happen; the old roots still die, so each year of drought results in about a 25 percent loss of root mass and carbohydrate reserves. If the drought continues, the plant can become weaker and weaker until it eventually dies. This condition is worsened when grazing pressure prevents rest for the plant during the growing season, and the ability to maintain adequate leaf area. We are seeing some death loss to native grasses due to the prolonged drought. This usually shows up as "thinning" of grass stands, or in some cases, large patches of bare ground. Now that we have some moisture, it is time to nurse our native grasses back to health with good rangeland management practices. A lot of folks took a hit in the pocketbook by reducing cow herds, purchasing feed, or in some cases not grazing at all. However, expenses, such as taxes and land payments continue. It is tempting to try and recover some of these expenses as quickly as possible, but this may actually hurt you and your rangeland resource in the long haul. Native grasses evolved with grazing. Bison, elk, deer, and antelope all made use of native rangelands before European settlement. In fact, the native grasses need grazing to remain healthy, but coming out of a drought, grazing needs to be carefully planned and stocking rates need to be conservative until those root masses are built back up. As a general rule, for each year of drought, it will take a year of normal precipitation for the native rangelands to recover. A five-year drought means about five years to get back to full production. Planned grazing is a prescription to improve the health of a pasture. Cool-season grasses, such as western wheatgrass, need early growing season rest to recover. The opposite is true for warm-season grasses such as buffalo grass or blue grama. these grasses need rest for the last 45 days of the growing season. In a planned grazing system, or rotational grazing system, it is important for all pastures to be grazed once before July 1. Livestock can then be rotated through the pastures a second time. Failure to do this results in the increase of invasive annual grasses, such as downey brome, six weeks fescue and little barley. By grazing for even a short time, livestock make use of these grasses and lessen their competition with native grasses later in the season. Also, a grass plant grazed off once is more tender the second time around and livestock will make use of some grasses that would otherwise lose their palatability and protein content. Weeds are well adapted to take advantage of drought-stressed pastures. In Western Kansas, the weed of biggest concern may well be western ragweed. Western ragweed is a perennial weed that is difficult to eradicate so chemical control measures may need to be used. This weed also has a trick up its sleeve--it is allelopathic. Allelopathic means this plant puts out a chemical that prevents other plants from growing beneath it, or at least seeds germinating beneath it. Some plants you may be familiar with that are allelopathic include walnut trees and Eastern Redcedar trees. In this area, it is seldom prudent to fertilize native grasses. Annual weeds and grasses will usually use the fertilizer and further damage the native grasses. Give your native grasses time and proper care, and they will soon be as productive as ever. For assistance in developing a prescribed grazing system, contact your local Natural Resources Conservation Service. Their range experts will offer you advice to get on the right track in restoring your native rangelands. The office is located at your local USDA Service Center (listed in the telephone book under United States Government or on the Internet at offices.usda.gov. More information is also available on the Kansas website at www.ks.nrcs.usda.gov. Date: 5/31/07
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