"hank roberts" wrote in message
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snip
Now, about Nordan Crested Wheatgrass -- what eats it? What happens if
it does outcompete cheat? What does it do versus later native
perennials on the same soil, does it leave enough moisture for them?

Cattle will readily eat Nordan Crested Wheatgrass (moderate to good palatability thru the growing
season) if it is not allowed to get too rank; i.e. it must be kept moderately grazed. If it is allowed
to go ungrazed too long cattle will avoid the coarse dry residual, and the best solution is to graze
it heavily in the fall or winter - after the coarse dried material has been softened by rain & snow-
so that it comes back nice and lush in the spring. This needs to be taken into account when designing
rest-rotation grazing plans for pastures that contain crested wheatgrass seedings.

I don't know if it's still the case, but for many years either Nordan or Fairway Crested Wheatgrass
was the grass of choice to revegetate large intense range fire areas or areas that were being
reclaimed from heavy stands of sagebrush or juniper on BLM, USFS and private land in Nevada, Idaho,
and Eastern Oregon & Washington, among others. Many huge seedings of these species -even those done
in the 60's - are still very productive. From the description given of the conditions, it should also
do well in the area of Nebraska coyotefred is dealing with.

It does quite well in competing with cheatgrass, but also is quite competitive with native
bunchgrasses. Under moderately heavy to very heavy grazing, it will crowd out some of the more
palatable native bunch grasses such as Idaho Fescue and Smooth Brome, but native wheatgrasses such as
Intermediate, Bluebunch, and Pubescent will usually hold their own.

I personally prefer to see rangeland restored with native species. I simply put forth one possible
solution to coyotefred's problem.


--
Bob Weinberger - La Grande, OR

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