Vine Mesquite Grass is becoming much more prevalent than in the past. Its long runners (Stolon’s) can cover an area very quickly when given the opportunity. (Graze-Rest) While the descriptions of its growth habits show it to dominantly grow in low areas, depressions, and bottomlands once it is established within an effective graze-rest program it extends its colonies to surrounding areas of less quality soils and out of the depressions. The more seeds and stolon’s that are out there the faster it covers surrounding bare ground. One of the issues with Vine Mesquite is that, while it covers the ground well it is not a very dense cover. (One of those grasses that look great when looking across the rangeland, but when looking down the density leaves some to be desired.)

Possibly the closest competitor of ‘stoloniferous’ grasses to Vine Mesquite is Buffalo Grass. Given the opportunity, healthy Buffalo plants can cover bare ground at a fast pace. This cover is generally very dense, allowing little sunlight-wind to get to the soil. The problem with it is it does not grow very tall and that can be a limiting factor as to its ability to build soil and save valuable water resources. As the picture below shows, Vine Mesquite and Buffalo get along well together. The Buffalo will mix with the Vine and form a tall (12” to 24” +) dense cover over the soil surface. This ‘magic’ potion is one of the fastest ways of creating a soil building program on the rangeland. It also protects the soil from wind and water erosion, while providing an excellent seed bed for the next generation of even higher quality plants. (Succession)

Remember this process takes time, probably years of a productive graze-rest program but is well worth the effort and of low cost to the producer. The programs that make large inputs to the range resource for a ‘quick’ recovery to the grasslands of old, generally fail, and certainly will fail if the application of an effective grazing program is not applied, from the start.

THE BETTER IT GETS THE FASTER IT GETS BETTER