NRCS consulting Berg tapped the Natural Resourc-


es Conservation Service (NRCS) to help plan for rangeland improve- ment on his new ranch. He used prescribed burns on all but 150 acres to jump-start restoration of the native grasses. With no interior fences on the


place, he consulted the experts to help him plan a rotational graz- ing system. Then he built fences, laid water lines, dozed cedar and sprayed mesquite and prickly pear. He manages for wildlife, livestock and, always, grass cover.


Natives, not hay Berg converted old cropfields


on the ranch to tame grasses – 350 acres of coastal and Tifton 85 ber- mudagrass, plus 185 acres of eastern gamagrass. That provides for all his summer grazing and spares the na- tive grasses so they have growing- season rest. This rest allows the natives to gain in vigor and also to reseed. Come winter, Berg rotates cattle


through the native pastures, using the grasses as a standing hay crop. He doesn’t feed a bale.


Take care of tame grasses To maximize yield of the tame


pastures, Berg fertilizes and sprays them almost every year. “Bermudagrass is so responsive


to fertilizer, and eastern gamagrass has a linear response to fertilizer just like corn,” he says. “I can pro- duce more grass with fertilizer even in a drought. “But it makes no sense to put out


For Berg, eastern gamagrass has yielded 50 percent more forage than Tifton 85 at the same fertility level.


86 The Cattleman April 2015


fertilizer if you don’t spray weeds.” For broadleaf weeds, Berg uses


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