In the Carter Canyon area, a 2022 wildfire destroyed trees,
rangeland, fences, and more. The Nebraska Extension and several co-sponsors gathered
on June 9 to look at the rangelands and their availability
for grazing livestock. Mitch Stephenson, Nebraska
Extension range and management specialist, said after the fires,
invasive species like cheatgrass can get a foothold.
So, we've had cheatgrass for a long time and there's been
a lot of research on it and we still haven't been able to fully
get ahead of it there's no silver bullet. He says there are ways to combat the grass
Things like grazing could be a good option
especially if you're able to get out early on it
and utilize that as a forage resource. Now chances are
there's still going to be enough seed produced every
year with the grazing. Unless it's a very intensively managed system
you're still going to have cheatgrass come up every
year. And compete with your perennials, there are some
herbicide options, some relatively new herbicide options
that seem to have a little bit longer residual in the soil.
So it keeps that cheatgrass from coming up.
Stephenson says there are a number of herbicide treatments for cheatgrass
Things like imazapic and then this product is indaziflan
is the chemical and indaziflan has had quite
a bit of research done throughout the western United States
and now into the western Great Plains, looking at how effective it is. And
it seems to be a herbicide that can last a little bit longer.
Herbicides with longer lasting control will benefit a range,
Stephenson said. Since the cheatgrass seed bank is fairly robust.