My mind is swirling with all the information packed in my brain today. The "Native Grasses" workshop was very informative. I so hope we can incorporate some of this into our farm.
The biggest obstacle I encountered was that the instructors kept talking about the need to spray to keep invasive weeds at bay until the natives were established. Well, we don't spray. Ever. Hmmm...
I am always up for a challenge. Another thing not researched much was the use of native grasses and raising sheep and goats. Though we plan to get some beef cows, this needs to work with the farm as a whole. Native grasses provide huge amounts of protein during the summer months when nothing else grows thus could possibly eliminate or reduce the amount of grain for the dairy goats. With extra copper supplementation, the sheep may be able to be mostly grass fed as well. (Cows are gaining up to 2 lbs a day on some of these grasses!)
After class, we walked a farm where the many of these grasses are planted and checked out their rotation practices. It was a great educational experience and something I look forward to learning more about and possibly implementing into our pastures in the future.
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