Understanding biomass accumulation patters is very important to design appropriate grazing strategies according to grass morphological types. Our objectives were to identify biomass allocation patterns in important grass species of Texas rangelands on grass structures (aboveground, crown and roots). This study was conducted from May to October 2016 under field conditions at the Texas Tech University Native rangeland.� This area has dry steppe climate with mild winters. Mean annual precipitation is 481 mm (Southern Regional Climate Center 2015). Vegetation on the area consists of mid and shortgrass species. (Bradbury 2007). Grass species used in this study were three native grasses:�switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) cultivars Alamo and Kanlow, blue grama (bouteloua gracilis) and side-oats grama (Bouteloua curtipendola), finally, an introduced species: WW-B.Dahl [Bothriochloa bladhii (RETZ) S.T. BLAKE) which is used in improved pastures due to its dry tolerance and great biomass production. Grasses were established on 5 gal nursing pots, with one plant per pot. Plants were located in the field and irrigated according to the mean annual precipitation. Plant biomass was collected at the end of the growing season and divided up into three components: aboveground, crown and roots. We used a CRD design, being species our treatment and analysis of variance to look at differences in biomass production of each biomass component among grass species. Statistical analysis showed significant differences in biomass production for each biomass component among grass species. Alamo switchgrass was the species that produced the higher biomass amount in each component, almost twice the amount of intermediate producers such as WW-B.Dahl and Kanlow being side-oats grama and blue grama the ones that produced the lower biomass values. However, although kanlow produced a low aboveground biomass it tended to produce higher roots biomass than the other species. In general terms, we can say that all these grasses produced slightly more belowground biomass that aboveground biomass.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.