06/01/05 North Idaho bluegrass field tours set

University of Idaho scientists will hold field days tomorrow and on June 9th to review research into Kentucky bluegrass. U of I's John Holman says the tour begins tomorrow morning at the Chris Ramsey farm near Worley. They've been using four different treatments to get rid of residue. HOLMAN "Bale the residue bail off and then mow it after baling. Then we do a full load burn, you just light the match. We do a bale burn so we bale off as much residue as we can, then we burn. The fourth treatment is a systems treatment where the first year we don't burn, the second year we do a bale burn, the third year we do a full load burn and then we repeat that sequence." Holman says most bluegrass stands have a ten year life if they're burned annually. Now in their fourth year of research can they draw any conclusions yet? HOLMAN "The full no burn that yield is significantly less than the other treatments and it had significantly more weeds than the other treatments." The June 9th tour near Potlatch will focus on bluegrass residue management including cattle grazing, bailing bluegrass straw after harvest then grazing with cattle, baling and burning, full load burning and alternate year harvests relying on herbicides or mowing. You can find more information and maps to the tour sites at the University of Idaho website, www.ag.uidaho.edu/bluegrass. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott