Why Should You Use Native Prairie and Wildflowers as Pasture?
Nonnative, cool season grasses took over in the Midwest for a reason. That reason was there is a lot of viability in using them as pasture. They have two green up seasons, and they can handle a heck of a beating year after year from cattle, particularly brome. But it has been a couple of hundred years, and we’re starting to see the effect of our natives being gone. So in today’s world, does it make sense to use native prairie and wildflower mixes as pasture for your grazers? Yes, and here’s why.
The dominant prairie species—big bluestem, little bluestem, Indiangrass, Sideoats Grama, and Switchgrass to name a few—produce a huge amount of tonnage. This helps grazers gain more weight faster. This study shows that native prairie can actually help the grazers gain more weight per acre than introduced cool season grasses. It is interesting to note, that some prairie grasses led to more gains than others, particularly the Big Bluestem.
If you have a diverse prairie, the grazers have a much healthier diet. What does this mean? A healthier hamburger. This may sound ridiculous, but the National Institutes of Health says there is “evidence… that phytochemical richness of herbivore diets enhances biochemical richness of meat and dairy.” In this article, they are only talking about grass fed versus conventional fed. But part of their point is that diversifying a diet helps the meat to have higher nutrients.
Don’t forget the wildflowers. Wildflowers, many of which are legumes, bloom in all different seasons from April to October, giving the cattle more diversity and protein and nutrients in their diet. When introduced to a prairie, it can take grazers a generation or two (especially cattle, since they have been bred so intensely) to learn how to graze diverse prairie properly, but once they get the hang of it, they will never want to go back.
In any pasture, or at least in any good pasture, the grazers aren’t the only fauna. While introduced grasses are better than corn rows, they don’t compare to a diverse prairie for habitat. Song birds, insects, earth worms, and tiny mammals will flourish in a diverse prairie as they comingle with their large fauna neighbors, the grazers. When we think of a farmstead, this is what we think of.
If you have hundreds of acres of pasture or are wanting to get started with one acre, you should definitely be consider native pasture mixes. You won’t regret it.
Looking to get some native pasture mix? You’re in luck, we have it here. Specially curated for grazers of all kinds in the Midwest!
P.S. if you’re looking to see what makes a prairie diverse, check out this blog.
