Stay in Touch with MDC news, newsletters, events, and manage your subscription
Xplor reconnects kids to nature and helps them find adventure in their own backyard. Free to residents of Missouri.
A monthly publication about conservation in Missouri. Started in 1938, the printed magazine is free to residents of Missouri.
Kansas City, Mo. – Late summer’s hot, dry weather can reduce cattle forage quality and availability. Adding native grasses and forbs to grazing and haying rotations can provide high quality forage in summer, and native plants also are a boost to wildlife. The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) can help landowners add native warm-season grasses and forbs to their forage systems.
MDC’s Private Land Services Division staff offers expertise on how to establish and maintain native grasses in forage systems. Staff can also help connect property managers with state and federal cost-share programs that can offset expenses for plantings that enhance soil conservation and wildlife habitat. Native warm-season grasses can also help ranchers by boosting cattle weight gains and calving rates.
The public is invited to attend a free grazing workshop from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Tuesday, July 30, at a private farm near Everton in Dade County. The workshop is a collaborative effort by MDC, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Quail Forever and Pheasants Forever. Lunch will be provided.
Participants are asked to register by July 24. To register, call the NRCS office at 417-637-5993, ext. 3. For more information, contact MDC Private Land Conservationist Landry Jones at 417-326-5189, ext. 1848, or at Landry.Jones@mdc.mo.gov.
Property owners can also get information about native warm-season grasses for forage by contacting their local MDC office. For information about MDC programs for private landowners, visit https://mdc.mo.gov/property.
