Experts to provide guidance on curbing woody encroachment
OTTAWA, Kan. — On March 18th, the Frontier Extension District will host a meeting to discuss the control of brush, Sericea Lespedeza and Old-World Bluestem in pastures. The meeting will begin at 7:00 p.m. in the Franklin County Commission Chambers at 1418 South Main in Ottawa.
Speaking at the event will be Keith Harmoney, K-State range science professor, and Jack Lemmon, manager of the K-State cow/calf unit. Harmoney will address how to control the typical brush species found in the Frontier District, such as locust, Osage orange, elm, mulberry, hackberry, persimmon, buckbrush, sumac, rough leaf dogwood and multiflora rose, as well as a fairly new problem species, bush honeysuckle.
Lemmon will round out the evening talking about other pasture pests, such as Sericea Lespedeza and Old-World Bluestem, both of which are rapidly taking over many pastures in eastern Kansas. A majority of the research Lemmon has been a part of is prescribed burns that are conducted during the growing season. Growing season burns are normally scheduled for August or early September. Lemmon will discuss how these burns are helping some producers push back against the invasion of the species mentioned earlier, Sericea Lespedeza and Old-World Bluestem.
Kansas has undergone a great spread of woody encroachment over the last 50 years, said Ryan Schaub, Frontier District ag agent specializing in crop production and farm management, and the expansion appears to be increasing rapidly. According to Schaub, Rangeland Analysis Platform (RAP; https://rangelands.app/), a website that evaluates vegetation presence and production based on satellite imagery, shows that Kansas has seen a wave of expansion of trees and brush on areas that at one time were predominately grasslands. Tree cover on these grasslands has nearly doubled in the last 20 years, going from a cover of nearly 4% to just over 8%, according to the RAP data.
“The amount of accumulated forage lost over the years due to this woody expansion is staggering,” said Schaub. “The estimated amount of forage lost in 2022 to woody encroachment of grasslands was 1.9 billion pounds, equivalent to roughly 1.6 million round bales, and remember, that is just in 2022. Since 1990, when they started tracking woody encroachment, the state of Kansas has lost roughly 35 million round bales of hay.”
Mark your calendars for this meeting at 7:00 pm on Tuesday, March 18, in the Franklin County Commission Chambers, 1418 South Main, in Ottawa. If you have questions, please reach out to Schaub in the Frontier Extension District office in Garnett at 785-448-6826.
