Improving Native Wet Meadows

This project was a cooperative grant carried out by James Keller of Newport, Nebraska, Larry O'Kief of Valentine, Nebraska, and Mike Ramm of Stuart, Nebraska. The three projects are labeled: FNC94-064A, FNC94-064B, and FNC94-064C respectively. The final report for each is identical, covering the results from all 3 projects. The three grantees were asked to work together cooperatively since their projects were similar.

View the project final report

Commodities

• Agronomic: grass (misc. perennial), hay

Practices

• Animal Production: feed/forage
• Crop Production: application rate management
• Education and Training: demonstration, extension, farmer to farmer
• Pest Management: competition

The sub-irrigated meadows in Cherry County need to have nitrogen fertilizer applied in order to maximize forage yield potential of the grasses. The application of nitrogen, however, does not necessarily increase the quality of the forage. Also, no one seems to know the effect that the nitrogen fertilizer applied on these meadows has on the quality of the groundwater. At any rate, the addition of seeded legumes should decrease the amount of commercial nitrogen fertilizer needed.

Also, the unique soil and moisture conditions of our meadows require the introduction and seedin gof greasses that will provide suitable forage and maintain a persistent stand.

Seed bed preparation would consiste of using Gramoxone as a burn down treatment vs. close grazing or clipping to reduce existing vegetative competition. A check treatment would also be included. Fertilizer treatments would include:

1. nitrogen alone
2. phosphorous alone
3. nitrogen/phosphorous blend
4. dealer-recommended fertilizer mix
5. check treatment with no added fertilizer

We will take yield checks on each of the different grass and grass/legume mixtures and across all fertilizer treatments. We will use a single harvest date and evaluate regrowth in the fall to determine total forage production.