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Most of us picture perennials such as bermudagrass, bahiagrass, "native grass," and Old World bluestems when warm-season grasses come to mind. These forages and others are adapted to all productive acreage of the southeastern United States and other areas. They are fair to good forages but have two major shortcomings. One is that they are generally not high quality, except early in the warm season. There are exceptions: crabgrass, broadleaf signalgrass, Texas panicum, buffelgrass, forage sorghums, millets, and others, which are generally much higher quality and can induce better animal performance than the perennial forages listed above. The second problem is that they are only warm-season grasses, or green during the six-month summer. However, late-summer to winter forage can be prorated far into winter as a dry, stockpiled pasture.
During the six months of winter, dormancy can be a problem or an opportunity. You can use those winter months to overseed certain warm- or cool-season forages into other warm- or cool-season grass residue to add diversity, production, length of green season, and quality. Consider doing so with low-input procedures.
Low Input and Its Advantages
"Low input" in this case means primarily controlling (reducing)
equipment and time/labor input and planting management requirements. It does
not mean eliminating proper seed kind, variety, and planting rates; adequate
fertilization for economical production; or proper rotational stocking management.
Low input entails organizing and managing for excellent results, within the
context of this approach to grassland farming, without some of the higher input
items and excessive time/labor. The techniques involve stepping outside the
paradigm of the time.
Producers sometimes do not overseed because of associated equipment and labor costs or disappointments with previous improper overseedings. Low-input procedures can improve economics and reduce overhead costs for equipment, labor, and time without seriously reducing forage yield. Some producers do not own any planting equipment at all, and others do not have row planting equipment (drills) or "high-tech" no-till drills because these tools are expensive. Large operations sometimes can justify spending $8,000 to over $20,000 on a special no-till drill. Along with that comes a tractor that adds perhaps $5,000 (used) to over $40,000 (new), depending on the operator's choices. Many operators, however, have economical equipment alternatives that, used with proper agronomic and grazing techniques, produce excellent forage stands and volume.
"Overseeding" in this case is simply planting a forage into another forage stand. Plantings for low-input grass farming can be broadcast or drilled inexpensively. This writing is primarily about overseeding for the winter and spring, but part of the application techniques apply to mixing different warm-season grasses, mixing warm season grasses with cool-season ones, and combining different cool-season grasses.
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Overseeding Cool-Season Forages Into Warm Season Forages
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