C4—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 13,1984
Foraging
Around
ill
Ism
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By Dr. John E. Baylor
Director of Market Development
Beachley-Hardy Seed Company
Cool Season Grasses - How Well Do
You Know Them?
Most of us take our cool season,
perennial forage grasses for
granted. We sow them, abuse
them, fail to fertilize or manage
them, and then we expect them to
be there when we need them. And
if they don’t perform well m July
and August we criticize them.
In fact grasses are extremely
important to us. On a worldwide
basis grasses are included in
nearly three fourths of the
cultivated forage cropland and
they make up a major portion of
the native rangeland. In the U.S.
alone there are some 1500 grass
species. They’re extremely im
portant as food crops, and are used
extensively for pasture, hay,
silage, soil conservation, turf and
wildlife.
Most perennial grasses grown
for forage in the Northeast are
classified as cool season grasses,
i.e. they require a cool, moist
climate for optimum growth. As a
group they are not extremely
drought or heat tolerant - and they
do require cool temperatures and
relatively long days to flower. And
unless our summers are cool and
moist these grasses don’t normally
produce well during the months of
July and August.
But they are multi-harvest
perennials, and the relationship
between growth and food reserves
in cool season grasses is similar to
r%>
that in alfalfa and other perennial
species. It’s true the food storage
organs of these grasses are not as
extensive as those of alfalfa and
red clover. And instead of roots the
main food storage organs are
rhizones or stem bases. This
means, of course, that for best
results management of grasses
can be just as important as
management of legumes.
Cool season grasses can be
grown alone or in mixtures with
legumes. When grown alone they
require adequate levels of
phosphorous and potash for good
growth. And, of course, they
require and respond well to
nitrogen fertilization.
In today’s column let’s take a
brief look at just two of these cool
season grasses to see where they
fit and how best you can make
them more useful in your forage
program
Kentucky bluegrass is one of the
oldest grass species known and
certainly one of the most widely
grown, but most maligned, grasses
in the Northeast. A low growing
and relatively low yielding grass,
forage wise its use is limited
mainly to permanent pastures
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where it is normally grazed con
tinuously and seldom fertilized or
managed. It does have a shallow
root system developing from
rhizones and it will not tolerate
heat, drought or poor soil. But it is
winter hardy and will maintain its
nutritive value longer than will
most other cool-season grasses.
Kentucky bluegrass is ' highly
acceptable to all classes of
livestock and certainly is one of the
easiest grasses to manage. Horses
relish it and bluegrass is the
primary component of most horse
pasture mixtures.
The overall production of many
old permanent bluegrass pastures
can be doubled or tripled by
complete fertilization or by
renovation to include a legume
such as birdsfoot trefoil or clover.
Currently there are no improved
varieties of Kentucky bluegrass
developed specifically for forage
purposes, although Dormie is said
to have superior pasture
characteristics. However, several
of the newer turf type varieties
such as Park are suitable for
pasture.
Until relatively recently
Perennial ryegrass was not con-
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sidered a suitable cool-season
grass for the Northeast. But with
the introduction of moderately
winter-hardy varieties this species
is finding a new Home, especially
in southern New York state,
Pennsylvania and points south.
A bunch grass, in contrast to the
rhizones produced by Kentucky
bluegrass, perennial ryegrass is
somewhat taller growing and more
productive than bluegrass. It is
exceptionally palatable and
nutritious as either pasture or hay
and is relished by all classes of
livestock. It grows well in mixtures
with alfalfa, birdsfoot trefoil and
the clovers and seems to survive
our winters satisfactorily when
grown with a legume. However,
until more winter-hardy varieties
become available we do not
recommend that it be grown alone
Like Kentucky bluegrass
perennial ryegrass lacks heat and
drought tolerance and, thus,
summer growth with this species is
likely to be moderately slow.
Currently Reveille is the most
widely grown variety in this area,
heading out some 2 weeks later
than Gnmalda. However, plant
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