Eastern Gamagrass

2018-04-18

The eastern gamagrass test patch is 10 to 12 inches tall, much further along than the bahia grass at this time in the spring.  That is my hat for a height reference.   Earlier this spring the sheep were in on it and the ryegrass when the gamagrass was 3 to 4 inches.   The sheep cropped it down to the ground and since then it's has grown back this much.  In a day or two I will bring the sheep in here again to graze the ryegrass and this gamagrass test plot.

 

Around 11:00 AM the fall ewe flock moved into this field.  In addition to the small eastern gamagrass plot, there was an abundance of good ryegrass.

 

These next two pictures are at end of day.  The sheep have cropped down the gamagrass quite substantially.

By the following morning the ewes had pretty much finished with the eastern gamagrass.  They seemed to have no problems at all eating eastern gamagrass at this stage of development.  A mature 3 to 5-foot stand of eastern gamagrass may be more problematic. 

2018-05-06 Update 

It is now early May and the eastern gamagrass has grown back quite well since being cropped near to the ground on April 18, that is just about 2 1/2 weeks.  I fenced the eastern gamagrass patch off from the sheep when I brought them in to finish off the ryegrass.  The sheep are in the background on the other side of the electric net fence surrounding the eastern gamagrass.  Again, I use my hat for size reference in the second picture below.

Further updates will follow the development of eastern gamagrass in this test plot.