Resiliency of Grazinglands in the Southern Great Plains: Tall Fescue and Bermudagrass.

Bermudagrass and summer-dormant tall fescue are resilient forage systems that are persistent through the good and bad years, profitable, and sustainable.  This paper summarizes the forage systems that have been evaluated in the southern Great Plains. The summer-active tall fescue was profitable ($91/Ac) from 2005 to 2010, however it did not survive the summer droughts of 2011 and 2012.  The annual small grains have been profitable, however there is risk of establishment failure during drought and these annual systems have potential for soil erosion, especially in a clean-tilled system.  Annual legumes (hairy vetch, winter peas, and arrowleaf clover) have been evaluated in rye/ryegrass, summer-active tall fescue, and bermudagrass, however these systems were not as profitable as N fertilizer.  After the 2011 and 2012 droughts, the summer-dormant tall fescue persisted whereas the summer-active fescues did not; therefore summer-dormant tall fescue was selected as the recommended cool-season perennial forage system.  However there is no production and economic data in the southern Great Plains. In 2013, Flecha summer-dormant tall fescue was established with either 112 kg N/ha or planted in checkerboard orientation with alfalfa and compared to wheat-crabgrass-alfalfa rotations. A graze-out wheat system was established each year under no-till establishment and compared to another system of wheat (graze and grain)-stock-piled summer-dormant tall fescue "complimentary" system, which was simulated by grazing tall fescue during the establishment period for wheat (Sept-Nov) and then deferred during the time cattle were stocked on wheat until it reached first hollow stem (late Feb). Averaged across seasons, graze-out wheat with 112 kg N/ha  produced 446 kg/ha live weight gain (LWG) was similar to the 424 kg LWG/ha for the summer-dormant tall fescue wiht 112 kg N/ha, which was greater than the complimentary grain-wheat and stock-piled summer dormant tall fescue (372 kg LWG/ha) and the summer-dormant tall fescue-alfalfa mixture ssystem (375 kg LWG/ha). Alfalfa has been profitable in earlier experiments ($127/ha), however it did not not survive the floods of 2015 and all the alfalfa systems had to be replanted, which negatively affected net returns.  In conclusion, both bermudagras and summer-dormant tall fescue can be utilized to develop a year-round grazing system in the southern Great Plains.