Common Equine Pasture Forages: Smooth Bromegrass

It can be used for silage, hay, or pasture, alone or in mixture with alfalfa, ladino clover, or red clover.

Characteristics

• Leafy, sod-forming cool season grass
• Spreads by extensive underground rhizomes
• Leaf blade is smooth, thin, and flat and has a distinct M or W shaped constriction
• Leaves form a "V" where they meet the stem
• Seed head is branched with 6-7 spikelets that typically leans to one side

Smooth Bromegrass Leaf

Attributes

• Survives long term periods of drought and extremes in temperature
• Matures and maintains forage quality later in the spring than orchardgrass; extends hay making window
• High stand persistence

Limitations

• Slow recovery after harvest or grazing
• Requires knowledgeable grazing management
• Full yields not reached until second or third year of production

Management

• Late summer is the preferred seeding time
• No-till seeding produces the best results
• Long, narrow seeds may be a seeding challenge and may bridge in the drill
• If seed is broadcast, seed must be covered with a drag or harrow
• If seeding alone, seed at 12-16 lbs. per acre
• Apply fertilizer and lime based on soil test results
• Maintain soil pH between 6 and 7
• Nitrogen fertilizer will greatly increase yields
• Apply 50 lbs. of nitrogen per acre at green up in spring and make additional applications in summer and late fall. Remove horses from pasture until all fertilizer has been incorporated into the soil
• Brome can be lightly grazed in spring during the tillering stage
• As the plants grow and stems elongate, grazing and mowing should be restricted since the growing point can be destroyed by mowing or close grazing
• When seed heads emerge, the plants can be mowed for hay or clipped Pastures should not be grazed closer than 4 inches

Smooth Bromegrass