On September 10th Clermont County Soil and Water Conservation district in partnership with Pheasants and Quail Forever, OSU Extension – Clermont, and NRCS hosted a pasture walk on Steve Philip’s Cattle Farm in Bethel. During this event we enjoyed hearing presentations from Dr. Marília Chiavegato, an Assistant Professor of Agroecosystem Management for Food System Resilience at the Ohio State University, Jason Jones, the Ohio Grasslands & Grazing Coordinator with Pheasants forever, and Gigi Neal the Agricultural & Natural Resources Educator at OSU Extension – Clermont.
One of the draws to Steve’s farm was his relatively recent establishment of a warm season grass pasture. One of the main benefits of warm season grasses is that they provide forage during times when more common cool-season pasture grasses go semi-dormant and produce less biomass. Warm-season grasses can do this without compromising the quality of forage as long as you employ effective grazing management. Grazing when leaf proportion is higher boosts forage nutritive value and warm season grasses offer high leaf proportion during summer slump months when cool season grasses falter. Having a mixed pasture operation can reduce foraging stress on pastures because of this unique characteristic. Another draw unrelated to livestock is that these warm season grass pastures also offer great habitat for many native bird species, such as the northern bobwhite quail.
In 2021, Steve decided to establish a warm season grass pasture in one of his fields. His main reason in doing so was the increase of forage mass for his cattle. With help of NRCS and Pheasants forever after those first three years getting the site prepped and the grass established, Steve has a ended up with a beautiful stand.
If you are interested in learning more about warm season grasses or are interested in starting this practice, check out the resources below or reach out to the contacts below. You can also join the newly formed Southern Ohio Grazing Council to keep up to date on grazing news in our region. Reach out to conaway.adams.swcd@live.com to get on their mailing list. We want to offer a special thanks to Bill Wickerham and the Southern Ohio Grazing Council for helping to sponsor this event.
Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS): NRCS helps get conservation agriculture practices out on the land and offer technical and cost assistance for establishing conservation practices.
Find your NRCS office: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/contact/find-a-service-center
Clermont Office, (513) 732-2181
Pheasants/Quail Forever: Is a non-profit organization devoted to helping maintain and establish upland habitat. They offer technical assistance to landowners trying to implement habitat on their land.
Find your Pheasants Forever biologist: https://www.pheasantsforever.org/Habitat/findBiologist.aspx
Jason Jones, Ohio Grasslands & Grazing Coordinator, jjones@quailforever.org
OSU Extension: The Ohio State University Extension Service provides an office of experts that provide practical, useful and research-based information to agricultural producers.
Find your Extension office: https://extension.osu.edu/lao
Gigi Neal, Agricultural & Natural Resources Educator, neal.331@OSU.edu
Marília Chiavegato, PhD, Assistant Professor of Agroecosystem Management for Food System Resilience at the Ohio State University, chiavegato.1@osu.edu
UT Native Warm-Season Grasses for Mid-South Forage Production
