Ideas on dryland pasture?

[DJ in WA]

I live on 5 acres, and I’m thinking I can plant about half in pasture. Problem is, I’m in an area considered a desert, with about 15 inches of moisture annually. I don’t want to irrigate, as water is not abundant. Just hoping I could get a few months of feed in spring/early summer if I keep them from overgrazing.

My neighbor has dryland alfalfa which he cuts in late June, then it goes dormant for lack of water. Rain is then rare til late fall before the snow flies.

So, I was going to contact a local seed company for their recommendations, but wanted ideas first.

First, does it matter nutritionally what kind of grass, or does nutrition just depend on whatever soil and fertilizer you have?

Should you try to mix in some legumes that get their own nitrogen and reduce the need for fertilizer? I know too much alfalfa might cause bloat. But I’ve heard it roots deeply to get water. Any drought resistant clovers?

In the 70’s, our hay fields and pastures we irrigated were alfalfa and orchard grass. Neighbor said orchard grass would be good, but I’m not sure if it’ll die out in the dry period and not come back next year.

[GREEN_ALIEN]

DJ, Ifn I remember correctly you are just down the highway from me and that is not such good news... A sad fact is that dryland in E WA averages about 40 acres per unit. It will not matter what you plant for the most part as it will start to lose it's nutrients about July 15 if not a tad sooner. If you want to keep say a milk cow and her calf on a 2.5 acre pasture you can try about 6 lbs of PX90 pellet , 2 pounds of corn based grain and free choice of feed grade wheat straw per day for a lactating cow. Minus the corn mix for a gestating cow as it is a tad too hot. Start ramping it up as the calf grows as it will take less milk and more of the feed.

PM me if you need more details or suppliers for the above products.

Ted

[Up North]

DJ - Inquire about crested wheatgrass. Alfalfa, Brome, and Bluestem are known for drought tolerance. Don't know which would work best at your location.

[JulieLou42]

All around here on our hills is dryland, and ranchers grow wheat, barley, rapeseed, orchard grass, timothy, trefoil, [there are some patches of brome around my place, but cow won't eat that] and our pasture grasses dry out after being swathed and baled in early July. If there's summer rain, as often there is, they come back some, and then go into dormancy with the winter weather. These ranchers cannot cut when the pasture's at its best because of the rains we still are having all the way thru June, so they wait till after July 4th to cut. Very few up here get it done before then. It's tall enough to turn them out on it about May 1st. Mine's mostly orchard, which is what my cow prefers, but it needs refurbishing badly.