Some conditions and influences pertaining to the native forage crop of the northern mixed prairie

Allred, B.W.

Some conditions and influences pertaining to the native forage crop of the northern mixed prairie

1945

Allred, B.W.

1. Individual native grazing plants, whether grasses, shrubs, or nongrassy herbs, have distinctive growth habits and feeding values. The native forage crop is composed of many species, thus making its management more difficult than a single farm crop like corn or alfalfa. 2. The mixed prairie is composed of climax midgrasses, short grasses, and dryland sedges, plus a variety of subdominant nongrassy herbs. 3. Grasses and other vegetation have been modified throughout the ages as environment has been changed by shifting climates. 4. The mixed prairie supports nearly one-fourth of the livestock in the United States west of the 98th meridian. 5. The cool season midgrasses, and palatable nongrassy herbs, are the first plants to go out under heavy grazing and drought. 6. The drought-resistant summer-growing short grasses, dryland sedges, Sandberg bluegrass, and unpalatable nongrassy herbs increase during the first stages in the depletion of excellent mixed prairie grasslands. 7. The following annual grasses and weeds increase on depleted mixed prairie ranges: Lambs quarter, Russian thistle, Woolly Indian wheat, sunflower, peppergrass, six weeks' fescue, witches' broom, Japanese chess, cheatgrass brome, little barley, and false buffalo.

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