– Christine Gelley, OSU Extension Agriculture and Natural Resources Educator, Noble County (also published in Ohio Farmer on-line)
This tall fescue pasture has been resting since August 2024 and is greening up in March 2025.
Prolonged drought in much of the state during 2024 led to many conversations about how bad the observed condition of pasture actually was and if it would bounce back when precipitation comes. Three months into 2025, we are still waiting for the answer.
Back in July and August, I answered those questions with the response of “Right now, the grass is dormant. It is saving resources to rebound when moisture comes.” Moving into in October and November, I became less confident that the brown and crusty grass we saw was dormant. Some of it was dead and some was dormant. We are still waiting to see which was the case as I write this in March.
The most prevalent types of pasture plants that we use in Ohio are cool-season forages. It is normal for these cool-season forages to enter a dormancy period to survive through the warmest and driest part of summer to come out productive in the fall. When D3 drought status hit much of the state this year, it aligned with the typical timing of summer slump. While the conditions were more extreme than typical, the grasses were dormant. Soon after, conditions progressed to D4 drought status and redemption seemed to slip further and further away.
Kentucky bluegrass emerging in March 2025 in a sacrificed winter-feeding pasture where hay was limit-fed in fall and winter.
In Noble County, Ohio in September, we had a brief period of green-up and growth that made us deceivingly hopeful that drought relief was coming. What I fear occurred in that moment was that to their detriment, dormant forages broke their dormancy, drew from the root reserves for growth and the pasture returned to brown and crusty again. Prolonged conditions such as this can occur so severely, they lead to plant death.
Concerning conditions led to many farmers asking, “Will we need to reseed in 2025?”
My advice to you now is the same as it was then- You should assume you will need to reseed at least part of your pasture this spring if you were in a drought-stricken area in 2024.
If you can get a soil probe into the ground, soil sampling now is a good idea. You can determine a plan for 2025 fertilization, determine types of forages that will thrive in the conditions you have, and determine which parts of your pasture may be best suited as sacrifice lots for feeding animals through the winter.
The rush is on now to shop for improved forage varieties to acquire and seed. If you have received drought relief assistance dollars, it would be wise to use some of those dollars for seed and fertilizer. A no-till drill with a fertilizer box may become your best friend come seeding time. Think ahead about renting or buying seeding equipment now so that you are ready when the conditions are right.
It has been a blessing that this winter we received more snow than in years past to slowly recharge our surface and groundwater to support spring growth. Green up has been slow, but I remain hopeful that many of the plants we suspected to be dead will turn out to have been dormant and they will rise again to meet the needs of our livestock this year.
But if they don’t on your farm, please take the opportunity to reach out to your local service personnel for assistance choosing a pasture rejuvenation plan to make the hills of the pasture alive again.
The Ohio State University has two Forage Resiliency webinars coming up that you are invited to attend about recovering from weather damages:
Webinar 1 was offered on March 4th on Weather Damage Evaluation. It was recorded and available to view at: https://go.osu.edu/forageresiliencywebinars
Webinar 2 on April 1: Options for Spring Planting will focus on stepwise processes for selecting forages to plant and how to manage them for successful establishment. Tips on fertility and harvest management will also be covered. Presenters will include Jordan Penrose, ANR Educator in Morgan County and Christine Gelley, ANR Educator in Noble County. Register for the webinar online at: https://go.osu.edu/2forageweb2025
Webinar 3 on May 6: Emergency Forages will focus on annual forage crops that can be seeded in-between the ideal planting windows for perennial forages in Ohio. Presenters will include OSU’s State Extension Forage Agronomist- Dr. Emma Matcham and Dean Kreager, ANR Educator in Licking County. Register for the webinar online at: https://go.osu.edu/3forageweb2025
The Integrated Forage Management Team hopes to provide practical solutions to challenges encountered with forage crops and livestock systems. We hope you will join us for this webinar series and events in the future. Questions about the webinar series or access to Zoom can be directed to Christine Gelley at gelley.2@osu.edu. More information about the Integrated Forage Management Team is available at https://forages.osu.edu.