Dallisgrass revisited

I have  posted several times about dallisgrass in the pasture. It features in this post a few years ago, this this post about burning it, this post in August 2011 and this post in August 2012. Please ignore the fact that I have spelled it differently in several of this posts. It is dallisgrass and here is a definition: "a tall tufted tropical South American perennial grass (Paspalum dilatatum) introduced as a pasture and forage grass in the southern United States". This came up in an e-mail conversation last night. Why don't I shear before breeding season to avoid the blue and red and green markings on the wool?

Good question and that is a discussion for another post. I was thinking about pros and cons of shearing before breeding--sometime in September. I was explaining that the dallisgrass grows so tall and develops seed heads in the late summer. At some point in the cycle the seed heads are very sticky and the sheep (and Rusty...

...and my pants) are covered with sticky goo that catches dirt and the seeds that come off of the grass. After a few weeks the sticky part goes away and then fall rains clean the sheep. I thought I'd look this up to see why the seed heads are so sticky. I was surprised to learn that the goo is actually the result of a fungus that is common on dallis grass and is toxic to cattle. Who would have thought? That doesn't change anything, but I find it interesting. So this morning I wanted to see for myself.

This dallisgrass looks "clean".

This one is infected.

The dry grass here is dallisgrass.

See how tall and thick it is? Some of the leaves are still green, but they are so coarse that the sheep will choose to eat the dallisgrass only after they have eaten all the grass and clover that they prefer.

A few sheep photos. This is Sierra.

This is Aurelia, the ewe I got from Kreutzer Farms  in Nebraska.

Onyx, the Jacob x BFL cross. Notice the ewe in the top right corner of the photo that is almost invisible in the tall grass.

And while I'm talking about fungus in the pasture, what about this one?

 It is huge.

Pasture Maintenance

Nothing very exciting in this post.  But I spent all day Sunday in the pasture  after thinking the job at hand would take only a couple of hours.  I find that I am always writing blog posts in my head so here it is.

I started by mowing the paddock that the sheep had just been grazing. Now that I have my mower (never meant for this heavy duty work, but so far still working) I have been working on the dallisgrass that gets ahead of the sheep this time of year. In the past I have tried burning, trampling, weed eating (photos and past efforts in this post and this post and this post), but I think this mower will be the answer. It is at the south end of my pasture(right side of the photo) that the dallisgrass gets so thick and tall. The idea is to mow right after grazing and then everything has an equal change of regrowth, and the dallisgrass will be in a more palatable stage and the sheep will keep up with the growth.

In this photo the paddock that I just mowed is to the right. The sheep grazed the one on the left a few days before. I mowed that one that last time they grazed it and that made a big difference. I shouldn't have to mow after each grazing--maybe once or twice per season I think. Notice the fence-line. That is a 3-wire electric fence and this was the other thing I wanted to deal with on this day. I have been putting off cleaning up the fence-line with the weed eater, but when you can't even see the wire, it's time. I have already used the weed-eater in the area where you can see the wire. This dallisgrass is tough. I have the heavy duty string on the weed-eater and it still gets used up quickly.  Slow-going. It took me about 3 hours to finish this fence-line.

Speaking of problem plants, here is another. This is what the medusahead looks like when it's dry. There are plenty of posts about my battle with this noxious weed also. This is along the perimeter fence.

And lets not forget devils-claw. This one isn't so bad because I don't have much of it and it is easy to chop out the big plants. It doesn't invade the irrigated pasture, but is along the edges where it is dry.

What is the problem with devils-claw? See the fruit? See those curved, pointed ends? When the fruit dries it splits in two and those curved points get caught in wool. I'll show you other photos sometime. This is seed dispersal in action.

Moving on to other plant problems. This is the small blackberry bush on the west fence. On this morning I actually had breakfast here because the berries are ripe, but in general the blackberry bushes become a problem when they cover the electric fence as they do on my west fenceline. (Note wheelbarrow full of devils-claw.)

I started irrigating Sunday evening. Here is a spot that I hoped to get water to this time. The last few times I irrigated the water didn't get here.

This is the pathetic state of the trefoil that didn't get water.

Here is what it looks like where it was irrigated.

And here is a view of a paddock that has had plenty of water, has a manageable amount of dallisgrass,and hasn't been grazed for a few weeks.

This is  self-portrait of the irrigator.

Green Pasture

You have all seen photos of my green pasture.

This does not happen naturally here in California's Central Valley . We have what is known as a Mediterranean climate. I thought I'd give you a definition but what I found when I did a google search is more interesting:

There are not many places in the world that have our hot, dry summers and cool, wet winters. So how do we grow all that clover and grass in a hot, dry summer? Irrigation, of course. But irrigation water has to come from somewhere if it's not coming out of the sky this time of year.

Our irrigation water is provided (sold) by Solano Irrigation District and comes from Lake Berryessa which fills from winter rainfall. Here is how our irrigation water is delivered.

Do you see that low spot in the mountains on the right side of the photo? Lake Berryessa is behind there. The water is carried down Putah Creek. Eventually it works it's way into a system of canals. When I call for water the SID person opens a gate at the end of this ditch that is normally dry. The water flows to another gate at the northwest corner of my property (that cement box on the other side of the fence). When that gate is open the water flows under the fence into the standpipe in the foreground.

That black circle is the pipe carrying the water into the standpipe. It flows out the hole on the south side of the standpipe (at the top of the photo).

This is a close-up of that rushing cool water. It's not a rushing mountain stream but it sure looked appealing this afternoon when I was outside working.

Here is where the water flows out of the standpipe into the pasture.

There is a ditch at the north end of each pasture. The water is just starting to fill the ditch.

I have to dig cut-outs in the ditch to get the water to flow where I want it. It's not a perfect system because our ditches are worn out and trampled by sheep and the pastures aren't level, but I can usually make it work. I have the water on for 24 to 36 hours to irrigate everything.

This is the last pasture the sheep were on yesterday and I finished mowing it (a story for another day)  just before irrigating.

This is what we'd have in the summer if we didn't irrigate. (This is a small pen behind the barn.)

Here is what irrigation gives us.

Wanted: Winter Storm

Wow! Look at that grass!

This photo was taken a few years ago in early February.

Here is another that shows the edge of the pasture.

This is the same field as in the first photo and the larger pasture is in the background. Why the difference? No rain.

The Central Valley of California has a Mediterranean climate--hot, dry summers and cool, wet winters. We count on the winter rains (and snow in the mountains), starting some time in October or November and continuing through April or May (and last year, into June) to fill reservoirs, replenish aquifers, and to grow grass. Normally the annual grasses start growing when it rains in the fall and when it gets warmer in the spring the grass growth takes off and we get the kind of growth as seen in that first photo. The annual grasses dry out in the spring, but can still provide feed through the summer when properly managed. The cycle starts over with the next fall rains.

I have irrigated pasture. I usually have the best of two worlds. I take advantage of that lush spring growth of annual plants...

...but I start irrigated in May or June. Through the summer, when livestock on dry land eat dry feed, my sheep eat perennial forages that include clovers and birdsfoot trefoil.

The  perennial plants drastically slow their growth in the winter but rely on winter rain to grow strong root systems and be ready to support new growth in the summer. Look at the next photo taken two weeks ago.

Annual grasses that germinated after the good rain in November have since died. Some plants are still trying valiantly to hang on but there is virtually no growth. The dry grass in this photo is the remnants of the late summer growth of less desirable yellow foxtail and bermudagrass.

This photo is behind the barn. That clump of grass in the foreground is under the place where any moisture (fog, dew) drips off the roof. Had there been normal rainfall the whole place would look like that.

Let's hope we see the rain that has been promised for this week so we can look forward to this scene soon.