Maximilian Sunflower, Texas Gayfeather. Pretty Perennials!

Maybe you have noticed or at least you will notice soon that this is the year for perennial plants!  The flowers mentioned above are perennial flowers (come back from roots) that you are seeing or soon will  see along roadsides or maybe in your pastures.  

Maximilian sunflower is rare where cattle graze since they are a favorite of cattle and generally high in nutrition. Gayfeather is not as palatable except for wildlife but its showy blooms are all over the place in October.  Look for them as you drive Texas’ back country roads.   

Minimum Till Small Grain

Well, we finally got some good general rains throughout the area and the temperatures may still be hot but football and fall is finally here.  That said, most wildlife and livestock producers like to plant small grains -oats and/or wheat, to supplement their grazing or attract wildlife.  So every year we wait on a rain, get out the tractor and disk, and plow at least twice to chop up and bury all that trash thats been growing all summer.  Then we fertilize and plow again and then we wait on a rain to plant and hope that there is enough moisture to bring up a seed.

Is there another way?  Yes! and its called minimum tillage even though its really not minimum till.  What I mean is that instead of changing your procedure you change the date.  If you will plow and even fertilize P and K in the months of July or early August you will have the field essentially ready to plant.  Then when you are ready to plant we can spray an over the top herbicide like Roundup with nitrogen fertilizer to eliminate small weeds and grass that have popped up and then you plant.  The seedbed may have a slight crust that a grain drill can easily penetrate.  Because you have done your tillage early the rains you get settle the soil and allow for a smooth packed seedbed.  The packed seedbed will inhibit weed seedling germination while allowing your small grain to push up through the grain drill row fast.  And this Roundup spray is cheaper than plowing!

Small Grain Forage or Grain

What is a small grain?  We use this term loosely when we generally mean a cereal grain such as oats, wheat, triticale, barley or rye or even rice although here we don't mean rice!  

Small grains are typically planted in the fall as temperatures begin to cool and we start to get fall moisture.  In this area we do plant small grains to actually harvest the seed but overall livestock raisers plant thousands of acres of small grains simply for cattle to graze in the winter and spring.

Planting Small Grains for Grazing

Triticale Variety

If you are strictly interested in grazing high quality small grains for your cattle herd or stockers or bred heifers, then here are a few guidelines:

• We plant early as in NOW, in order to get these plants growing so we can begin grazing early fall and through the winter if possible.
• Generally people don't worry about spending extra money on a named or numbered variety, they simply choose a bulk variety.  What small grain type to plant?  Well some people have their favorites but overall they all do well if planted properly.  In general either a triticale which is a wheat-rye cross or just rye is planted on very sandy soils because they just do better than oats or wheat on sand.  Oats are highly digestible and cattle do well on them, but they can winter freeze.  So you have lots of choices!
• How much seed do you plant?  Again people do have their preferences but to encourage fall grazing we plant more than if you just want to harvest grain.  So plant at least a bushel and more likely 2-3 bushels per acre.  For oats that means 3 bushels or 96 lbs per acre and wheat at 2 bushels or 120 lbs per acre or anything in-between. 
• Small grains do like nitrogen and phosphorus.  Nitrogen can be applied before and after planting but phosphorus does need to be applied to the soil before planting.  We get no response to phosphorus after planting.  How much?  A soil test sure helps to know but without it then a lot of growers use 100#’s of 18-46-0 per acre along with 100#’s of 34-0-0 in the fall followed by another 200#’s of 34-0-0 in January or early February.  
• Lastly if you plant early then watch out for armyworms and greenbugs.  You might have to spray or at least have the cattle ready to graze to keep them under control.

Bermudagrass Stem Maggot

 I sure don't want to sound all doom and gloom but we do need to make sure all our pasture and hay growers are aware of a severe problem that is only getting worse.  Bermudagrass stem maggot is here and it doesn't seem to be going away!

If you have coastal bermudagrass hay or pasture then you know about this insect. If you are not sure then walk out in your pastures now and look at the dead tips. This insect has four life stages: the adult is a small fly, the adult lays an egg on the bermudagrass stem, the egg hatches a maggot or small larvae that burrows into the stem and feeds for several days.  The feeding it does cuts through the topmost leaves so that they die.  These leaves that died look just like a killing frost came through without the cold weather.

Alicia, Coastal and Tifton 44 are the most susceptible since they are finer textured bermudagrasses.  Tifton 85, which is a coarser grass, just doesn't have much problem with BSM.  If you are going to be sprigging this next year you really should consider this insect and its potential damage in the future for your choice of grass to grow.

Soil Test or Tissue Test or Both?

How do you know if you need a soil sample or maybe a tissue sample?  What is a tissue sample?  Do I need both?

Most people are familiar with soil samples and we literally take hundreds every year.  Soil samples are very important where we are growing any annual crop like cotton, wheat, sorghum, etc.  And they are important if we are growing perennial crops like bermudagrass for hay, especially where we take multiple cuttings.

So what is a tissue sample?  Tissue samples are usually leaves but can be other plant parts that are taken or pulled during the growing season.  For instance, in pecans we would pull mature leaves from about the middle of the tree canopy.  These leaves are taken from several trees to make up a sample to send in to the lab.  These samples tell us if the plant is getting all the nutrients it needs from the soil and/or our fertilizer applications.  Sometimes we can supply a nutrient in the soil and the soil properties keep it from being available to the plant.  Or in the case of perennial plants like trees they may be getting nutrients from deeper down than the soil sample was taken.  The tissue sample along with a soil sample is a great way to make decisions  about crop fertility and know you are making a difference in crop yield.  As with soil samples it is important to take  tissue samples for several years to compare results from year to year.