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big blue stem

DOR

Life Member
I want to plant some big blue stem for a landowner that lets me hunt. How do you go about it when to plant etc....
not a day of farming in my body so keep it stupid-simple for me! Thanks
Also thought about planting some late beans as well what would it cost to plant 2 acres? Seed cost only!
 
You'll get your best results with a drill. If it is not a native grass drill you'll need to take care that the seed is carried all the way through by mixing with a larger seed like oats. Native seeds can plug your drill because of the way the seed is shaped. They make a good nurse crop and help pull the odd shaped big blue seed through the drill. Set your planter shallow, about a 1/8 of an inch. You could add a wild forb to the mix, partridge pea, and diversify the planting to better suit wildlife. I am no expert so if somebody wants to correct any of this feel free. In just did a planting which included these two varieties and a few others at a cost of around $75 an acre.
 
Check with your local DNR, county conservation, or pheasants forever, they will be able to tell you where to rent a native grass drill, just did 15 acres this spring and the cost for the drill was $10 an acre. Planted little bluestem, side oats grama, canada wild rye, partridge peas and blackeyed susan.
 
My family has many acres of buffer strips, restored prairie grass fields and CRP acres planted into various native plantings. Several of the early fields are big blue, little blue, Indiangrass, and swtichgrass (note: don't use too much switchgrass, as it is alittle aggressive...and make sure they are native varieties) We tend to leave out the switchgrass in our later plantings. We have used our county grass drill on several fields, had the NRCS drill buffers and then used an old oat seeder to do some others. All in all, the grass drill is the best. You can work the soil like you are going to plant corn, or try it no-till...both work. We have drilled in late spring/early summer. Make sure to kill everything with roundup before drilling. Make sure to mow the weeds for the first few years. We mow several times just to keep weeds down and to give the grass a chance to come up. After establishment, burn every 2 or 3 years.
We get all our seed from Osenbaugh (spelling may be incorrect) out of Lucas, Iowa. They are good people.
Hope this helps...I could ramble on and on about prairie grass. Lemme tell you, it will increase your sightings of all types of animals.
 
I planted 12 acres of big blue and native grass for my wetlands about 3 weeks ago. the big blue will not come up for a year so you will need a cover crop for the first year. I used oats, cheap and wildlife like it. the big blue is fluffy and needs something to help it go through the drill planter(thats the best way to plant it). I mixed the big blue and the oats together and then drill planted it. the big blue won't come up yet but the oats will, ( mine are about 1 foot tall now). o.k. here is the order of planting. 1- disk the field 2-call your local pheasants forever and ask for big blue or native grass along with anyother wildlife seed (because it is FREE) and buy some oats. 3-mix them up and get a drill planter and start planting. sometimes you can barrow the drill planter from pheasants for ever at no cost. you will need to mow the oats but after that you're good to go.
 
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