Competition and survival of perennial cool-season grass forages seeded with winter wheat in the southern Great Plains

Domestic wheat is the standard winter and spring forage of the Southern Great Plains forage-livestock production system; however, cool-season perennial forage grasses can also become an integral component of this grazing system for livestock producers. Typically, following a mid-September sowing date, only 30-40 growing days are available for cool-season grass establishment. As a consequence, a one year growing season, without livestock grazing pressures, is necessary to provide good stand establishment of the perennial cool-season species. The opposite is true for the case where cool-season annuals like winter wheat or rye can be grazed fairly heavily following a period of stand establishment. The inability of a livestock producer to heavily graze a newly sown perennial cool-season grass forage pasture provides not only a loss of land resources for grazing, but limits the sites where a cattleman can sow pasture to cool-season species and continue to graze his livestock. This study was conducted to determine if perennial cool-season grass forages could compete and become established when inter-seeded with winter wheat as a companion species. Stand counts were performed on each three replicate plots of eighty-two perennial cool-season cultivars and experimental germplasms to determine stand establishment and seedling survival rates. Depending on the species, stand counts of plants per m2 obtained in the fall of 2001 ranged from 0, with no survival, to a value of 40, which indicates a 100%, fully established stand. Results from this study indicate that crested wheatgrass, tall wheatgrass, intermediate wheatgrass, smooth bromegrass and western wheatgrass, when inter-seeded and under competition with winter wheat, can be successfully established and provide grazing resources for livestock producers in the Southern Plains during the first year of sowing.