LENORE, Man. — Jane Thornton plucks a stem of grass from the pasture and studies it for a moment.
“This is western wheat grass,” she tells the cattle producers who have joined her for a pasture tour.
“You’ll see a lot of that coming in here and that’s probably a good sign.”
After explaining some of the plant’s beneficial traits, Thornton’s attention is caught by a plant with fern-like leaves.
She identifies the plant as yarrow. When its leaves are rubbed together, it smells like sage. Yarrow displays attractive white flowers in early summer.
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The tour continues in this way, with Thornton, a provincial grassland specialist, pointing out the traits that help distinguish one species of grass from another. Even the seasoned cattle producers struggle to tell some of the species apart.
The message that Thornton wants to deliver is the importance of knowing the different grasses growing in a pasture. That knowledge can be valuable when managing a pasture and deciding how to improve it.
“In order to know what direction you are going with your pasture, you need to know what these plants are,” Thornton said.
“You need to know which ones are missing, which ones should be there, and which ones you need to decrease.”
For example, some species of grass grow better in the cool seasons of spring and fall, with their growth stalled by hot, dry weather.
Other grasses flourish in the heat of summer but are not big forage producers during the cool days of spring.
That difference should influence when to graze each pasture.
Learning the grass species can also help if herbicides are being used to control undesirable plants, said Thornton. Which plants will the herbicide control and which ones will it damage? That question can best be answered once the different plant species are identified.
“It’s kind of the same as treating an annual crop. You need to know what’s in there.”
As well, grass species offer hints about the history of a pasture. A common problem in overgrazed native pastures is that the desirable species are weakened and replaced by less desirable species.
Once better management practices have been adopted, the variety of grass species will help to reveal how well the pasture is recovering.
Thornton saw healthy signs at the pasture near Lenore, Man. The presence of green needlegrass and western wheat grass were among them.
One way to learn the different grass species is by studying them in books.
Another option, said Thornton, is to learn from someone who knows what to look for.
There are several features that help tell grass species apart, she said.
These include the flower heads, the colour and form of the leaves, the rhizomes and the collar region of the grass. Rhizomes are underground stems of plants. The collar is at the base of the grass leaf where it wraps around the stem.
