Prairie Thoughts

I just finished reading a couple articles.  You ever get when you read these scientific articles that more often then not they’ll just contradict another article and leave you with no clear solution??  It’s like everyone’s always just thinking out loud.  

Obviously I kid, but it does get old.  How about instead of doing small sample sizes, you do large ones, and instead of short term studies, you make them all long term!!!  Go out and get that money!

Ok…

The first article was about installing prairie seed on an old grazing field that will continue to be grazed.  

Things I took away from this:

- When grazing is implemented, drill seeding came out better than broadcast seeding. 

- if the object of a land manager is truly to get the land back to what it used to be, grazing is one of the methods needed on a prairie restoration (Bison).  

The second article spoke about how there was little to no effect of mowing or burning on a prairie within the soil.  They did say that this may be due to a short sample size.

- Out of PH, water content and organic matter within the soil, moisture was the most significant change.  Reasoning behind this is a simple one.  With the litter burned off, sunlight directly hits the soil, which increases evaporation.  The top layer of the soil profile is less dry than the lower.