AllRefer - Species: Prairie Junegrass

All classes of livestock and several wildlife species utilize prairie Junegrass [59]. Rapid seasonal development of prairie Junegrass provides good, early-spring forage for livestock. Studies document prairie Junegrass utilization by bighorn sheep, mountain goats, elk, white-tailed deer and mule deer [20,42,63,68]. Due to scattered distribution, prairie Junegrass does not maintain a significant role in the diet of most wildlife species. A review of mule deer foraging habits found fluctuations of use from little to moderate, directly related to percent availability of other preferred forage species [34,60,68]. Prairie Junegrass's ability to inhabit rocky soils and high elevations makes it a good food source for bighorn sheep [42,45,63]. Mountain goats feeding in similar habitats also utilize prairie Junegrass [45].

PALATABILITY:

Prairie Junegrass is palatable to all classes of livestock and wildlife species in spring, and in fall after curing [117]. Level of palatability decreases during seed production until curing is complete [117]. Palatability and degree of use by livestock and wildlife species are [37,81]:

	CO	MT	ND	UT	WY
Cattle	Good	Good	Good	Good	Good
Domestic Sheep	Good	Good	Good	Good	Good
Horses	Good	Good	Good	Good	Good
Pronghorn	----	Fair	Poor	Fair	Good
Elk	----	Fair-Good	----	Good	Good
Mule deer	----	Fair	Poor	Fair	Good
White-tailed deer	----	----	Poor	----	Good
Small mammals	----	----	Poor	Good	Fair
Small non-game birds	----	----	Poor	Good	Fair
Upland game birds	----	----	Poor	Fair	Fair
Waterfowl	----	----	Fair	Poor	Fair

NUTRITIONAL VALUE:

Prairie Junegrass is rated poor in protein value and good in energy value [37]. Nutritional value in accordance with relative phenological stage is [81]:

	Hay, dry	Aerial part fresh, immature	Aerial part fresh, mature	Aerial part fresh overripe
% Dry matter	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
% Ash	7.8	7.8	8.1	7.7
% Crude Fiber	34.2	25.8	38.6	41.0
% Ether extract	2.9	2.3	2.5	1.8
% N-Free extract	46.0	40.3	45.0	45.7
% Protein (N x 6.25)	9.1	23.8	5.8	3.8
% digestible protein - Cattle	4.8	18.1	2.8	1.1
% digestible protein - Horses	5.2	17.7	2.5	0.8
% digestible protein - Sheep	4.7	19.2	2.4	0.5
Energy
Cattle DE¹ Mcal/kg	2.11	2.50	2.31	2.31
Sheep DE¹ Mcal/kg	1.99	2.59	2.44	2.47
Cattle ME² Mcal/kg	1.73	2.05	1.89	1.89
Sheep ME² Mcal/kg	1.63	2.12	2.00	2.03
Cattle TDN³ %	47.8	56.7	52.5	52.3
Sheep TDN³ %	45.2	58.8	55.3	56.0

¹DE = Digestable energy ²ME = Metabolizable energy ³TDN = Total digestable nutrients

COVER VALUE:

The short stature and scattered distribution of prairie Junegrass provide minimum coverage for larger birds and mammals. Relative coverage classifications for wildlife species are [37]:

MT ND UT WY

Small mammals
Poor Poor Good Fair

Small non-game birds Poor Fair Good Fair

Upland game birds Poor Fair Fair Fair

Waterfowl Good Poor Poor Fair

VALUE FOR REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED SITES:

Prairie Junegrass can recolonize areas that have been subjected to severe water stress. Recolonization by prairie Junegrass provides protective cover to help subsequent post-drought, successional plant species growth [121].

Prairie Junegrass's ability to suppress invasive annuals is variable. Reestablishing prairie Junegrass populations, through greenhouse propagation and transplant, within an area overrun by annuals has been successful [72]. Borman and others [22] observed a weak ability to exclude annual weeds in southwest Oregon. When grown with the invasive Japanese brome (Bromus japonicus) under densities of 0, 50, 100, 200 and 400 m^-2, emergence and seedling survival of prairie Junegrass were not affected [96].

Prairie Junegrass has the ability to revegetate areas of high soil disturbance. Sod obtained from a native rough fescue (Festuca scabrella) climax grass community (containing prairie Junegrass) in Canada was used to revegetate a steep-sloped ravine edge disturbed during road construction and community facility development [91]. Prairie Junegrass is a component in seeding mixtures designed for restoration of disturbed Fescue grassland sites within Glacier National Park [69]. A study evaluating secondary successional patterns in a big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) community in the Piceane Basin of northwest Colorado observed a positive response in prairie Junegrass vegetation cover after induced soil disturbance. Increased vegetation cover over a six year period occurred after three different soil disturbance regimes [14]:

a)	Vegetation mechanically removed and soil scarified to 12 inches (30 cm)
b)	Top soil and subsoil (C horizon) removed to 3.3 feet (1 m) mixed and replaced
c)	2 layers, 3.3 feet (1 m), soil removed and replaced in reverse order (second layer on top)

Disturbance of sites with loamy surface soil and heavy clay subsoil by vehicle traffic and bison activity in Wood Buffalo National Park, Alberta, was associated with increased coverage for prairie Junegrass. Undisturbed sites showed 0.25 to 1.4% cover, disturbed 3.4 to 3.8% cover [89].

Larger numbers of seed for native species are finding their way into the market every year, with availability determined by demand [107]. A seed testing procedure for purity and viability of prairie Junegrass is under development [21]. Propagation of prairie Junegrass from seed can be difficult as shown by the study results below [84]:

Stratification	Days to 1st Germination	Days to peak Germination	Approx. # of seedlings / oz. of seed
10 weeks (dry)	13	NA	low
10 weeks (moist)	7	19	low

Direct seeding and seedling transplant produced poor results. Transplanting year old plants had good results [84]. Seed stratification produced greater germination rates than dry storage, 58% to 18% respectively. Viability of seed dramatically decreased from 21% in 3rd year of dry storage at room temperature to 7% in the 6th year [18].

OTHER USES AND VALUES:

MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS:

Obtaining prairie Junegrass seed from plants within similar environments (i.e. elevation, climate), may be significant for re-establishing vigorous populations. A correlation between genotype and phenotype of individuals from different habitats has been observed [95].

Grazing on prairie Junegrass populations has both positive and negative results [15,39,80,88,102,103]. Evaluations of grazing are difficult because growing conditions may prove more significant than grazing pressure. Important grazing considerations for prairie Junegrass include site characteristics (e.g. soil, elevation) [109], environmental conditions [69,105], growing season, and frequency [69]. A study comparing rotational grazing (1½ months spring and 1½ months fall every other year) and continuous grazing saw increases under both regimes; precipitation was above the long term average [103]. A study comparing rotational grazing and season long grazing on a native northern mixed-grass prairie of North Dakota was associated with positive responses in prairie Junegrass basal cover between the 1st and 4th year. Degenerative effects were seen in the 6th year [15]. Prairie Junegrass responds well to grazing and is more palatable in spring and fall [114,117]. In general, grazing conducted August through October is sustainable, if adequate moisture is available [24]. Maintaining a 3 inch (7.6 cm) stubble is recommended for seral communities of the Great Basin, Pacific Northwest and northern Great Plains [80].

The increased presence of invasive plant species in areas with prairie Junegrass has led to studies evaluating the use of herbicidal controls. Tordon and Transline were evaluated for control of spotted knapweed (Centaurea maculosa) on native grasslands. No negative effects were documented for prairie Junegrass and increases in native grass density were observed [93]. Tebuthiuron applied to control sagebrush in Idaho had no effect on prairie Junegrass canopy cover at application rates reaching 1.1 kg ha ^-1 [123].

Correlations between mycorrhizal associations and prairie Junegrass stage of development have been observed. Positive associations are seen within early seedling development [51]. In later developmental stages, a negative association was documented within several grassland communities. In the absence of vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizae (VAM) in low P soils, prairie Junegrass outcompeted big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii); the opposite was true in the presence of VAM and P [52]. Suppression of mycorrhizal symbiosis increased the biomass of prairie Junegrass within a experimental tall-grass prairie consisting of big bluestem, purple prairie clover (Dalea purpurea), speedwell (Veronica fasciculata) and tall blazing star (Liatris aspera) [124].

VALUE AND USE

IMPORTANCE TO LIVESTOCK AND WILDLIFE: