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Alfalfla with grass....

Katrina; I'm with Clarence, a locally adapted variety of intermediate wheatgrass. That might not be the entire right answer, but it's sure part of it. Won't hurt anything when its dry, and if it rains in the spring you better order an extra pallet of twine,or net. Caught right I have seen some fantastic horse hay that led with intermediate.
 
We have some intermediate wheat grass hay and we don't care for it.
Cows eat it and seem to do okay, but even when we try and cut it early,
it seems coarse.

When we were in SW Montana we sold horse hay to a Race Horse Stable
in Louisiana. It was Kentucky Bluegrass and Orchard grass. We have
always liked Orchard grass but it does need more moisture. Of course
the Kentucky Bluegrass doesn't yield very well, but sure sells good for
horse hay.

Anyway, our Extension Office has a pamphlet that talks about "Dryland
Orchard Grass". I always meant to find out more about it, but that's still
on my 'to do' list. Maybe you could ask you extension agent there about it.

Let us know what you decide, katrina. This thread has been very interesting to me.
 
I agree with Clarencen also. The newer variety of crested he talked about is called Fairway. Doesn't grow in bunches like the old stuff. If you're Irrigated go with about 12-15 pounds of alfalfa and no more than 2 pounds of orchard grass.
 
Big Swede said:
I agree with Clarencen also. The newer variety of crested he talked about is called Fairway. Doesn't grow in bunches like the old stuff. If you're Irrigated go with about 12-15 pounds of alfalfa and no more than 2 pounds of orchard grass.
Click to expand...

Isn't Fairway the old variety?
I thought Kirk was the newer one. :?
 
http://www.saskforage.ca/publications/Crested%20WG%20Seed%20Production.pdf

If this will open it tells all about crested wheat.

Fairway and Kirk as I read it are different species of Crested Wheat.

I know some don't like the Kirk as well as it seems stemmier. In this country the Fairway type seem short and tough to cut.
 
I believe Fairway is an older variety. It is used as a turf grass, it is more sod forming. I always wondered if it would work well if planted with other sod forming grasses then the plain Crested.

I would have to go back and look at more of my references, but it seems there were two crested wheat grasses Desert wheatgrass and another one. One had a broad seed head, it reminded me of a rattle snakes rattlers. The other had a narrow seed head. Nordan was developed in the 1950's it was what we planted, although there were around here some fields here that were planted in the late 1930's of the other type. I think the new variety I am thinking about is called New HY. Fifteen years or so they developed a cross of wheat grasses using what they called Blue Bunch Wheatgrass. New Hy might be that cross.

The native, Western wheat grass was always one of my favorite grasses, we don't see as much of it as we did. The first years after the dry years of the 1930's in some places it came back in abundance. Our other grasses were set back, early spring moisture allowed it to start ahead of them. It grew on the edges of fields where wind had deposited top soil from our fields, and in old yards and corrals. A few people had small combines back then, some of this grass was harvested for seed. My Dad bought some of this. He sowed it with an end gate seeder on top of the ground in the late fall or winter. It didn't do very much. This seed had never been tested or cleaned. Western Wheat grass is a good early grazing grass, it also makes good hay was especially liked for horse hay.
 
i'm thinking newhy is a cross between blue bunch--montana's state grass--that won't stand abuse---and quackgrass--been meaning to try it

i like western wg---salt tolerant, holds it's whack pretty good into winter and rhizonomous---seems like hoof action or light spiking helps it spread--it'll creep into crp or farmland from places you didn't even see it--
 
Anything wrong with just planting alfalfa. You will always have good hay to grind or mix with your poor hay, can be unrolled for supplementation and on years you need income, or have excess you can sell high quality hay for a good price versus alfalfa with grass in it. Give it 5 years or so and the grass will come on itself.
 
Around here alfalfa doesn't last that many years. 6 or 7 years and it tends to get pretty sparse. Grass hay can carry the load as the alfalfa dies out, especially when moisture is good.
Alfalfa sets quite a bit of nitrogen so the grass hay can take advantage of that.
 
Clarencen said:
I believe Fairway is an older variety. It is used as a turf grass, it is more sod forming. I always wondered if it would work well if planted with other sod forming grasses then the plain Crested.

I would have to go back and look at more of my references, but it seems there were two crested wheat grasses Desert wheatgrass and another one. One had a broad seed head, it reminded me of a rattle snakes rattlers. The other had a narrow seed head. Nordan was developed in the 1950's it was what we planted, although there were around here some fields here that were planted in the late 1930's of the other type. I think the new variety I am thinking about is called New HY. Fifteen years or so they developed a cross of wheat grasses using what they called Blue Bunch Wheatgrass. New Hy might be that cross.

The native, Western wheat grass was always one of my favorite grasses, we don't see as much of it as we did. The first years after the dry years of the 1930's in some places it came back in abundance. Our other grasses were set back, early spring moisture allowed it to start ahead of them. It grew on the edges of fields where wind had deposited top soil from our fields, and in old yards and corrals. A few people had small combines back then, some of this grass was harvested for seed. My Dad bought some of this. He sowed it with an end gate seeder on top of the ground in the late fall or winter. It didn't do very much. This seed had never been tested or cleaned. Western Wheat grass is a good early grazing grass, it also makes good hay was especially liked for horse hay.
Click to expand...

FWIW, we planted Fairway around our buildings. If the horses get out
they will not stay on that grass, nor will the cows outside of eating it
as they walk to someplace else. Observing this for several years, I have
to say I don't think they like it.
 
Faster horses said:
Clarencen said:
I believe Fairway is an older variety. It is used as a turf grass, it is more sod forming. I always wondered if it would work well if planted with other sod forming grasses then the plain Crested.

I would have to go back and look at more of my references, but it seems there were two crested wheat grasses Desert wheatgrass and another one. One had a broad seed head, it reminded me of a rattle snakes rattlers. The other had a narrow seed head. Nordan was developed in the 1950's it was what we planted, although there were around here some fields here that were planted in the late 1930's of the other type. I think the new variety I am thinking about is called New HY. Fifteen years or so they developed a cross of wheat grasses using what they called Blue Bunch Wheatgrass. New Hy might be that cross.

The native, Western wheat grass was always one of my favorite grasses, we don't see as much of it as we did. The first years after the dry years of the 1930's in some places it came back in abundance. Our other grasses were set back, early spring moisture allowed it to start ahead of them. It grew on the edges of fields where wind had deposited top soil from our fields, and in old yards and corrals. A few people had small combines back then, some of this grass was harvested for seed. My Dad bought some of this. He sowed it with an end gate seeder on top of the ground in the late fall or winter. It didn't do very much. This seed had never been tested or cleaned. Western Wheat grass is a good early grazing grass, it also makes good hay was especially liked for horse hay.
Click to expand...

FWIW, we planted Fairway around our buildings. If the horses get out
they will not stay on that grass, nor will the cows outside of eating it
as they walk to someplace else. Observing this for several years, I have
to say I don't think they like it.
Click to expand...

Fairway is a diploid variety and Kirk is a tetraploid. The diploids tend to be lower growing and have a greater tendency to going wolfy.
The Desert variety you refer to could be just the tetroids (like Kirk) as the 2 types are Agropyron cristatum and desertorum.
Just looking and it says that CWG is the second highest acreage in Western Canada behind smooth brome.
 
I opened up some of those links that were mentioned there on Crested WG and the yellow blossom alfalfa. Interesting stuff there.
I guess the new Crested Wheat grass I was thinking of is called Hycrest. I don't believe the wheat grass Quack grass cross would do well here. Quack grass belongs to the same family of grasses as wheat grass though. Some of the same clues are used to identify them.
As for cost, here Crested wheat grass in quite a bit higher priced per pound then intermediate, but there are more seeds per pound with crested.

I have neighbors who sell seed and fertilizer. They have planted the roundup ready alfalfa. Looks promising for straight alfalfa fields. It produced two cuttings here in spite of the drought. We normally do not expect two cuttings here every year.

If I was younger and still in the ranching business there are a lot of things I would like to try.
 

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