Rangeland Ecology & Management

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EFFECTS OF MOB GRAZING ON BERMUDAGRASS REMOVAL AND NATIVE GRASSLAND RESTORATION
Author
Shipman, Julia R.
Muir, James P.
Publisher
Society for Range Management
Publication Year
2018
Body

Converting bermudagrass pastures into native species prairies with high diversity is a multi-stage process, more complicated than it appears. Limiting factors include cost, timing, seed and equipment availability, climate, soils and management. Some common management practices for species suppression include prescribed burning and herbicides, but these generally are ineffective in facilitating native plant establishment. Bermudagrass has many adaptations that resist suppression: fast growing, dense and resilient, which are desirable to landowners and ranchers when purposely planted for grazing, but create problems when converting pastures to diverse native grasslands. Because bermudagrass is so aggressive it easily out-competes native species, especially during the first few years when native seedlings are most vulnerable. Our project in northcentral Texas compares bermudagrass suppression methods, seedbed preparation, native seed mixes, and mowing vs. mob grazing to determine which are most effective combinations to convert bermudagrass fields into diverse native grasslands, mimicking prairies once widely present in Texas. Our trial is in two locations to represent two different ecoregions: Stephenville, TX, Cross Timbers ecoregion and McGregor, TX, Blackland prairie. We measured seedling emergence and ground cover at 80 and 160 days following planting. In mob grazing post-seeding to facilitate native seedling establishment vis-�-vis weeds, we recorded canopy cover and plant height pre- and post-grazing. Our main objective is to suppress invasive bermudagrass and other weeds while increasing biodiversity through native grasses, and forbs which will provide habitat and food sources to native wildlife, specifically ground-dwelling birds such as bobwhite quail.

Language
English
Resource Type
Text
Document Type
Conference Proceedings
Conference Name
SRM Reno, NV