I purchased my first property in northern Missouri earlier this year and have been working through figuring out the best way to utilize some of the open acreage for wildlife habitat. There are roughly 14 acres that have historically been hayed and were mostly fescue. I've worked with the NRSC for cost-share assistance to convert 10 acres to NWSG. The fields border both a gravel road and a highway with a pretty good amount of traffic. My primary goals with the NWSG is to help provide screening from the roads, especially during the fall/winter months as well as some winter cover. I've read through many of the threads on here about establishing NWSG which have been super helpful and hopefully have me on the right track.
In late May I mowed the fields and got a good kill on the fescue a couple weeks later. The fields have now grown back with a mix of mostly common ragweed, as well as a fair amount of foxtail and yellow nut sedge. I'm hoping to get some feedback/ideas on the following:
1) Is is worth getting another spray in this fall? I was assuming I would have to hit it again in October or so with gly/2-4-D for the fescue. I don't see any fescue bouncing back yet but I am concerned about the yellow nut sedge as its my understanding it is very difficult to get control of. Since I got a good kill early June would I be ok waiting to spray again early spring and include a pre-emergent? If I spray this fall, should I use something like Thunder that will help with the sedge? I know part of this depends on the seed mix which brings me to my next question...
2) I'm having a hard time deciding on the varieties I want to go with. Since my primary goals are screening and winter cover, I was thinking some combo of switch (RC bigrock, CIR, Kanlow), big blue, and/or indian grass. It is my understanding that any of these can end up dominating after a number of years. If I recall, I think I have to have a min of 3 different varieties. This is a NWSG mix only and I don't place to include any forbs for now to help make the establishment the first year a little easier with herbicides such as 2-4-D. Most of this is going on slopes/hilltop areas but a couple acres will be along a creek bottom area. Part of the deal with this NRCS enrollment is that I have to meet the lime/nutrient requirements so I don't think fertility or pH will be a limiting factor. The soil tests from the spring were super acidic with a pH of around 4.5-5. I had about 3.5 tons/acre of ag lime spread in June and plan to have another 3 or so spread over winter sometime. FWIW, fertilizing/liming for a NWSG establishment seems to kind of defeat the purpose to me but it is what it is.
Property aerial below. Orange is the areas I'm thinking for the NWSG. Green for food plots. Yellow for potential switchgrass screenings. Purple acres are being enrolled into a monarch habitat planting that I am also working with the NRCS on. I'm very much open to any other thoughts/ideas anyone has. These are just ideas I've come up with with little experience in land management.
Pics below are the listing pics of the hay fields from last year when it was still hay ground.
I appreciate all of the info I've already gathered from this forum and look forward to contributing and learning more. Sorry for the long post and thanks for reading!
In late May I mowed the fields and got a good kill on the fescue a couple weeks later. The fields have now grown back with a mix of mostly common ragweed, as well as a fair amount of foxtail and yellow nut sedge. I'm hoping to get some feedback/ideas on the following:
1) Is is worth getting another spray in this fall? I was assuming I would have to hit it again in October or so with gly/2-4-D for the fescue. I don't see any fescue bouncing back yet but I am concerned about the yellow nut sedge as its my understanding it is very difficult to get control of. Since I got a good kill early June would I be ok waiting to spray again early spring and include a pre-emergent? If I spray this fall, should I use something like Thunder that will help with the sedge? I know part of this depends on the seed mix which brings me to my next question...
2) I'm having a hard time deciding on the varieties I want to go with. Since my primary goals are screening and winter cover, I was thinking some combo of switch (RC bigrock, CIR, Kanlow), big blue, and/or indian grass. It is my understanding that any of these can end up dominating after a number of years. If I recall, I think I have to have a min of 3 different varieties. This is a NWSG mix only and I don't place to include any forbs for now to help make the establishment the first year a little easier with herbicides such as 2-4-D. Most of this is going on slopes/hilltop areas but a couple acres will be along a creek bottom area. Part of the deal with this NRCS enrollment is that I have to meet the lime/nutrient requirements so I don't think fertility or pH will be a limiting factor. The soil tests from the spring were super acidic with a pH of around 4.5-5. I had about 3.5 tons/acre of ag lime spread in June and plan to have another 3 or so spread over winter sometime. FWIW, fertilizing/liming for a NWSG establishment seems to kind of defeat the purpose to me but it is what it is.
Property aerial below. Orange is the areas I'm thinking for the NWSG. Green for food plots. Yellow for potential switchgrass screenings. Purple acres are being enrolled into a monarch habitat planting that I am also working with the NRCS on. I'm very much open to any other thoughts/ideas anyone has. These are just ideas I've come up with with little experience in land management.
Pics below are the listing pics of the hay fields from last year when it was still hay ground.
I appreciate all of the info I've already gathered from this forum and look forward to contributing and learning more. Sorry for the long post and thanks for reading!
