# What is the most common grass in your area



## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

Was doing some thinking today and got to wondering in different parts of the country what the most common perennial naturalized or improved grass would be? Thinking about not only in managed hay fields but pastures, and other open areas as well. Not talking about weedy grasses.....thinking like orchard, timothy, brome, fescue, etc.....

Here it is by far fescue. Pretty much every pasture is fescue, road sides are mostly fescue, any hillsides and open ares not in forest or brush is fescue. Most all grass hay around here is fescue as well. Seems like this is pretty much the same for the whole upper and mid south. Just curious about what other areas are like.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

Orchard then Brome

Orchard more in alfalfa/ grass mix.

Brome is used more in waterways,ditches,etc because of erosion control as it sods more vs a clump grass like brome.Here most waterways and ditches are baled.


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## IHCman (Aug 27, 2011)

Here it is Brome grass.


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## Colby (Mar 5, 2012)

Here it is mostly improved Bermuda grass, Tifton 85, Jiggs and coastal. Also a lot of Bahia grass in the pastures. Road ditches have a lot of native grass in them like blue stem.


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## NebTrac (Aug 12, 2014)

Out here smooth brome has the road ditches, As for my meadows, they are smoothe brome and kentucky blue, with natives like Indian Grass, Big Bluestem, sideoats gramma, blue gramma, switchgrass, some redtop and prairie cordgrass and some other grass I really know nothing about - Grandpa always called wire grass, it reminds me of something similiar to alkali sacaton, but I don't really know. Harder to cut I do know that.

Along the creek is a lot of reed canarygrass, prairie cordgrass.

We do have some pockets of intermediate wheatgrass.

For pastures, being on the edge of the sandhills, we have a lot of small blue, big blue, sand blue, switch, kentucky blue. Needle and thread, prairie junegrass, western wheatgrass, sand dropseed, scribners panicum, prairie sandreed, are the ones I can think of right now.

The only fescue we have is six-weeks fescue which is more worthless than the wildoats that look so green in early spring. I detest those two grasses.

Troy


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## gosh (Sep 28, 2014)

Brome, timothy and orchard.

And lots of reed canary grass on the irrigation ditches here as well.

The county extension put on a class a few months ago in which they were pushing tall fescue to mix with alfalfa. This idea hasn't caught on here at all just yet.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Yes, fescue in the high Southern Appalachias was a Godsend in the late forties early fifities as it basically ended widespread erosion here in the SE. Before that the native grasses could not recover from grazing fast enough(bluestems etc.) and with cattle grazing these steep hillsides, it caused alot of erosion problems.

Regards, Mike


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## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

Fescue and orchard grass. KY blue and some Timothy around


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## hillside hay (Feb 4, 2013)

Mainly dairy in my area so a lot of orchard/clover or alfalfa mixes. Dry hay acres are mainly orchard,timothy,brome with fescue mixed in to bulk it up in August.


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## VA Haymaker (Jul 1, 2014)

I'd say the most common grass in our area is from not managed fields, but mismanaged fields. Orchard grass, fescue, purpletop (some call it grease grass). Don't know what's going on - but many fields seem to be getting a lot of milkweed after the first cutting. Lambsquarter and queen anne's lace everywhere. Hardly any timothy or alfalfa.

IMHO - (not that I'm a smart guy), the hay quality around here and type has been "whatever grows" for so long, nobody knows what is good hay. Hit it with some 10-10-10, rarily do I see lime trucks or folks spraying. Wait for the seeds to come and you've got max quantity of "horse quality" hay... LOL!


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## Troy Farmer (Jul 31, 2011)

Thanks to the state highway department, Bahai is the most common here. In fact some folks refer to it as "highway dept. grass". Fescue would be second and Bermuda third. Anyone who has really taken care of their place over the years will have mostly fescue.


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## TJH (Mar 23, 2014)

Fescue by far cool season, common Bermuda warm season


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

The most common plant here is fast becoming smooth bedstraw. It takes over everything, ditches, roadsides, lawns, gardens, fields.

Before that regularly cut and maintained fields would stabilize in timothy, clover and field peas pretty well with a mix of species down low.


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## IHCman (Aug 27, 2011)

gosh said:


> Brome, timothy and orchard.
> 
> And lots of reed canary grass on the irrigation ditches here as well.
> 
> The county extension put on a class a few months ago in which they were pushing tall fescue to mix with alfalfa. This idea hasn't caught on here at all just yet.


a local dairy guy here has been seeding fescue into his alfalfa. He showed some stands to dad and dad thought it looked pretty good.


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## Bishop (Apr 6, 2015)

Timothy, then brome.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

IHCman said:


> a local dairy guy here has been seeding fescue into his alfalfa. He showed some stands to dad and dad thought it looked pretty good.


What type of fescue do you plant in your region to companion with alfalfa?

Regards, Mike


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## socohay (Jul 21, 2015)

Smooth brome followed closely by orchard. Up high Timothy, meadow foxtail making some progress. A few spots here and there of reed canary grass in the wet areas both elevations.


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## kentuckyguy (Apr 13, 2015)

Fescue and indian grass here. I personally really like the Indian grass. And this time of year Johnson grass. 
I just put up around 400 bales of it.


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## RockmartGA (Jun 29, 2011)

Here in north Georgia, fescue by a wide margin. Some folks try a bermuda / fescue mix.

After the first cutting and the hot summer temperatures take hold, the Johnson Grass seems to be everywhere. For cow hay, most folks don't mind a little Johnson grass as long as you cut it about 18-24". Let it get much taller than that and its hard to get the stems to dry (don't see very many mower/conditioners down this way).

I have a little Orchard grass mixed in my field - don't know how it got there but I'm not complaining. If we have a cool spring, it does well. I've thought about drilling some Orchard in my field and see if I can get it to take hold, although I think we are a little South of its optimum growth region


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## ozarkian (Dec 11, 2010)

Here in Southwest Missouri it is Fescue, Orchard grass, Alfalfa.

Of course the evil cursed Johnson grass. Who the hell is this Johnson character, and why does he keep invading my hay fields with his nasty grass?


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## Tim/South (Dec 12, 2011)

I will say Bahia is the most common here. It is a tough hardy grass. Fescue is probably second.

At one time I would have said Bermuda was number one. Less Ag here than in days past. Many of the old Bermuda fields were let go when the parents passed on and Bahia took them over.

Bermuda is still the most desired.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

I personally despise Johnson grass and Dallis grass. Now if that is all that I could grow I would no doubt have more of a affinity for both....but I can grow Alfalfa, Orchard grass, and Timothy quite readily. I have never had a customer ask to buy a small square of Johnson or Dallis....and with good reason.

I would grow Bermuda but it eats too much Nitrogen for my wallet.

But, we all grow what we can or are forced to...and once again it all comes down to location, location, location.

I can see the summer just ever so slightly begin to wane. It has been a very hot June and July here...August and September can be brutal.

The TImber rattlers have been quite bothersome for folks located adjacent to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park....seems the heat has them on the move.

Regards, Mike


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## hillside hay (Feb 4, 2013)

Noticed some crested wheat grass along some fence lines . One thing I have noticed in my area. Animals seem to prefer the old strains over the newer improved varieties. I have done multiple side by sides and 9 out of ten times they go for the older stand. This is just orchard timothy . I can't say it is a true scientific result but it is enough for me to try and preserve the older stands. Currently I am searching out an old all crop to let the couple outside rounds go to seed.


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## Tx Jim (Jun 30, 2014)

I despise Dallis & Bahia grass but Johnson grass has it's place but not in a Coastal Bermuda field. Fine stemmed fertilized Johnson grass cut & baled properly can make some very good high protein hay.


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## Tim/South (Dec 12, 2011)

If I had an extra field to experiment with I would like to grow Johnson Grass for cow hay. I have seen it grown in the southern part of the state and it does well. JG is so hardy. If the entire field was planted then it could be cut when knee high. Yield would be good and no telling how many cuttings a person could get before frost. I bet the cows would stay fat all winter.


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