Cleared ground does not stay bare. Something takes it — and left to chance, that something is usually annual weeds and the brush you just paid to remove. Seeding native grass back is what makes clearing hold.
Why it matters more than it sounds
Native perennial grass does four things at once: it holds soil on a slope through the kind of rain this country delivers all at once, it makes fawning and nesting cover, it carries a prescribed fire if you ever want one, and it competes with regrowth so the mulcher does not have to come back every other year.
It is also the cheapest acre of wildlife habitat you can buy, because once it is established it does not get replanted.
What we seed
- Little bluestem — the backbone of this country. Drought-hard, holds structure through winter.
- Sideoats grama — the Texas state grass, and it earns it. Palatable, tough, good on shallow ground.
- Switchgrass — tall cover where you want screening or a bedding area.
- Indiangrass — deep-rooted, productive on better soils.
- Forbs and legumes — Illinois bundleflower, partridge pea, Engelmann daisy. The part most seedings leave out, and the part that feeds insects, which is what poults eat.
How it goes in
Native seed is light and chaffy and will not meter through a conventional drill — it needs a native seed drill with picker wheels and a fluffy-box. That is the single most common reason a range seeding fails: the right seed run through the wrong equipment, planted too deep or not at all.
Seeding window is February to April, onto a firm, weed-free seedbed. We plant shallow — a quarter inch, no more — and cultipack. Where a drill cannot run, we broadcast and pack, never broadcast alone.
What to expect, honestly
Native grass is slow. Year one looks like weeds and disappointment — the plants are putting everything into roots. Year two it shows. Year three it is a stand. Anyone promising a stand the first summer is selling something.
Weed control in the establishment year matters more than seeding rate. We will tell you what the first year needs before you plant, not after.
Planning clearing work? Seeding is cheapest when it is scoped with the clearing, not after it. Call (940) 779-4001.
