The Positive Side of Bermuda Grass: Kali the Jersey Giant grazes in my backyard.
Hello and Happy Weedsday, er Wednesday.
You may have read me bitching about the toils of eradication of invasive Bermuda grass in my vegetable garden. Today, instead, I want to salute this tough, fast-growing groundcover for its pastureland benefits.
A wistful soundtrack by Silver Jews: "Like Like, The The The Death"
"Grass, rabbits, grass, rabbits, grass, rabbits, grass, rabbits, grassss....."
So, I already knew that Bermuda was a grass hay available on the menu at all the local feedstores, and I have been very satisfied by how the little flock of hens keeps our approximately 20' x 30' rectangle of shaggy "lawn" foraged down to about 5" tall in some spots. The birds prefer to browse in the new growth especially as the grass reclaims bare dirt northward. They barely graze in the central depths of the thick green fodder.
The chicken pasture after several months of vigorous spring growth, watered well using city tapwater, mediated by vigorous grazing by 9 hens.
I view lawns as an ornamental water/money pit, but maintaining this emerald patch turns out to be a boon for our urban homestead. Morning and evening, the laying hens gobble their share of commercial pellets before piling on a lot of longstaple organic fiber. Their manure is easy to hose down to feed the soil.
However, this pasture is just too abundant NOT to use it to fodder our own source of ethical meat. My family and I are unashamedly omnivorous, but that doesn't mean we have to accept the insane and inhumane meat factories fouling our food supply. My little patch of fertile rancherita still needs me to mow it several times a year!
Scorched earth policy for the Bermuda grass on the veggie side of the fence.
Did you know that the United States underwent a grassfed agricultural revolution post World War II? Everything that makes Bermuda bad for the kitchen garden makes it magnificent for pastureland!
Here is a wonderful agricultural video for USA farmers, circa 1950. (Notice all the hat tans of the representative farmers!)
Here are some features of this excellent pasture grass from https://www.feedipedia.org/node/471
1. Rated Moderately Nutritious, Bermuda grass will satisfy grazing livestock.
2. Deep roots and rhizomes make Bermuda grass resistant to overgrazing, heavy traffic, drought, and flooding. It loves hot weather and full sun. The rhizomes deep underground can survive frosts and fires alike.
3. Fast-growing, Bermuda grass tips can grow up to 3" per day. It can be grazed or used for cut-and-carry hay works, pelleted, or silaged.
4. Erosion control and soil amelioration: Bermuda grass will colonize even seaside saline soil and will stabilize eroding slopes. It has shown particular promise in cleaning hog waste lagoons when planted on them in a flotilla.
Lawn--ahem! PASTURE--clippings this mowing amounted to roughly a large flake of good grass hay.
Our new plan is to add rabbits to our homestead! In tractor cages, rabbits will mow the Bermuda pasture down to a close clip, and cover it with their "cool" (non-burning) manure. We figure it will take about 3 months for us to assemble all the infrastructure we need to start breeding our own meat rabbits. So I have been working hard on caring for the back pasture, while @mattlovell experiments with a hydroponic barley grass sprouting system for year round, high nutrition fodder!
Until then, these fine ladies will hold down the fort.
Love,cat
@creationofcare
