Sagebrush...what do I need?

[HobbleCreek]

NevadaSmith,

It sounds like we're in about the same climate. I'm in Utah at about the same elevation. I hear your warning about clearing too much of the sage brush. I wouldn't mind leaving it in place if I could figure out how to get the grass to grow better with the sage brush there.

If I could figure out an efficient way to harvest the sagebrush seed, that could be a more profitable crop than anything else I might grow up there.

-- Grant

 

[Toiyabe]

From what I've seen and heard, sagebrush dosen't inhibit grass growth. It can work the other way around - if you have too much grass (especially cheatgrass and other exotic weeds) the fire cycle gets accelerated to the point where sagebrush can't reestablish itself. People used to chain the land around here to get rid of the sagebrush and juniper, but gave it up when it didn't result in better cattle forage.

If your land is like Western Nevada, just keep the grazing pressure down and you'll get lots of native bunch grass along with the sagebrush. Keep it undisturbed and unburned and it'll stay that way.

How do you make money from sagebrush as a crop?

 

[HobbleCreek]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( How do you make money from sagebrush as a crop? )</font>

The short answer is, I haven't. My understanding is that the government pays a fairly high price for sagebrush seed. Although I was mostly kidding, it would be wonderful if I could profitably harvest my sagebrush seed crop.

-- Grant