Big Buestem Grass Sucks

I took a little hike down through the pasturage this morning and I'm afraid I have a new problem taking over. This damned Big Bluestem Grass.

This is another problem that has been caused by the great Multi-Cult religious movement that has been destroying our Western civilization for the last few decades. It was a native grass that supposedly grew everywhere and was a mainstay prairie forage plant. Re-seeding all kinds of "Native" plants was the battle cry of the enviro-freaks and the Anti-European crowd so what did our highway and conservation departments do?

Why they started introducing this crap everywhere they could.

While I am sure it has some advantages otherwise it wouldn't have been so prolific years ago that doesn't always mean there isn't something else that can work better. I mean sure I get it, Buffalo loved the stuff. Do you see any buffalo around my farm?

Yes it is edible for other critters. Horses and Sheep will eat it.

If I tie their heads down on a  short lead right above it and keep em there until they start to starve they will eventually munch on it. Maybe. I am convinced a few of my picky eaters will just starve actually.

You can bale this stuff. The stems play hell on the lighter twine though. Of course by the time you start feeding it in Winter the stems have the appeal of a long dried stick to the Sheep. Oh ya they really are so happy about getting it.

This stuff started showing up a few years ago when MoDot began planting it along the roadsides and it has been slowly expanding to the point that I am going to have to plow up my hayfield and reseed something useful within the next year or so. As I said I am sure this grass has it's place because it is very drought resistant but where there is enough annual rainfall to maintain a more palatable and higher density/nutrient rich variety of grass I see no reason to re-introduce this variety.

As a side story to this I have a neighbor that used to lease a few hundred acres of grazing rights in a nearby section of the National Forest each year. There were several open fields there that were naturally occurring Fescue grass and kept his cattle well fed during the Winter. When they reseeded in the Big Bluestem he ceased leasing from them as that ground could no longer maintain his stock over Winter and it was costing him more to pasture his herd there than it was worth.

And then we wonder why meat prices keep going up.

We humans were created to tend the land and maximize it's productive value. I do not deny that we often times take it too far but that doesn't mean allowing it to go wild and untamed is the answer either. I think that is why we were also instilled with a love of nature and the beauty it reflects of our creator which in turn leaves us with a balance that is needed and this is an example of politics sticking it's nose into a place it doesn't belong and allowing those with no skin in the game a say in how it is played.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!