Bowring Ranch Sod House Sunday

[Faster horses]

No offense taken, Jeannie. But thanks for caring~

[Jeannie]

Thanks! I just figure we are all in this together, if I can help I will!

[Faster horses]

And I know Blue Gamma Grass and Blue Stem, and Buffalo Grass and Club Moss (hate that stuff). I don't think I know Western Wheatgrass, though it is supposedly what we have the most of. Kinda threw me for a loop when I found out people up in Oldtimers country can cut it for hay~it gets that tall. So I'm not totally sure what it is.

There are different kinds of crested, too. We plant Hycrest in the hay fields and Fairway in the lawn. I have noticed that when we turn the horses (or cows occasionally) out in front of the house, they don't stay long on the Fairway crested. So I have come to the conclusion that they don't much like it. Or they are pretty spoiled...

[Soapweed]

It is with regret that I confess I don't know a lot of the Sandhills grasses and plants. Being too scientific about anything has never been my long-suit. I do take pride in taking care of our land and cattle, and though I don't know all the names of grasses, I know when there IS grass and when there AIN'T. That is more than some of the specialists seem to fathom.

Here is another confession. Back in my 4-H days, that I didn't take too seriously, I took "range management". This project dealt with learning the proper names of the different grasses. Our leader was a nice lady, but she had trouble saying her "L's". Being ornery in a subtle sort of way, I made a point of asking questions of her that "Little Bluestem" would be the answer. It kind of tickled me to hear her say "Widdo Bwoostem." Kick my hiney. I deserve it.

Speaking of lisps, my cousin confessed to being ornery one time, also. He and a friend were visiting about guns and the talk turned to pistols. A neighbor arrived late on the scene, and when he heard "pistols" asked politely, "What do you use to kill thistles?" My ornery cousin chided him and said, "We know you speak with a lisp, but we didn't know you listened with one, too."

[Faster horses]

AHHHHH,

[Jeannie]

[Jeannie]

[the real jake]

This penning topic that somehow got to be a thread about grass got my attention.

We have several warm and cool season grasses here, so have several "chances" over a years time to grow grass.

First in the spring, although not a native grass, crested wheat usually makes an early appearance. We have several types of wheatgrass. There are many varieties of crested such as Standard, Nordan, Fairway, among others. There is Pubescent, and Intermediate wheatgrass, with several types of each. Our main cool season grass, which would be in Faster Horses area also is Thread Leaf Sedge. It also has a politically incorrect name that I will not use here.

Some other grasses we can or normally do have are, prairie sand reed, little and big bluestem, side oats gramma, blue gramma, western or native wheatgrass (it is native), green needle, cheatgrass(yuck), brome, june grass, alfalfa, and others I can't think of at the moment.

We just had a very vigorous T-storm that came through leaving us some rain to maybe grow some of those grasses.

Winds were over 80 miles per hour in the neighborhood.

[Faster horses]

Prairie Sand Reed Grass, that's the big YUK for me. Nothing will eat it.
It looks so good during the summer, kind of like a broam grass. But it will still be there in the fall, and in the winter and the spring and next summer...

We tasted it once, Double YUK. It tastes like oil. It grows in sandy soil and is usually found on the top and/or upper side of hills. It turns a pretty mauve color in the fall.

It isn't worth anything as far as I know.

[Haytrucker]

In about 1981 I had this grass identification thing down, I have slipped some since. Soapweed; I think what I'm calling "needlegrass" isn't true needle-and-thread, in fact it can't be because isn't N&T a decreaser? You're right about the wet years and needle grass, this country is absolutely overgrown with I'm afraid is going turn out to be "fuel". In '03 I hayed some dryland, with a "little" needlegrass in it, and I would again, if I had all the stickers out of my gloves from that batch.

[Jinglebob]

[the real jake]

Jinglebob, I have to take friendly issue with you on part of your statement.
I have done several grass samples, and unless you are talking about possible new growth in March, that time of the year is normally the poorest protein in grasses. I have found that May and June have the highest proteins, but cattle can hardly eat enough grass with the water content being so high then. Except in drought of course, then all bets are off.

Crested wheat can be close to 20% protein before it joints, and other grasses can be very high in protein also.

What is lignify? I am going to show my ignorance here.

Maybe I will see you in BF tomorrow? We could cuss and discuss it over a beverage.