Perla the wonder grass

Being born and raised in California all I have ever known are grasses out on our annual grass grazing lands that are born each November with the start of our rainy season. These grasses that we depend on for our six months of green grass production are very nutritious and tasty to all grazing animals. But for six months, starting in May and ending on the first day of November, give or take a week or two, California is dry and we don’t expect any rain. So what we have for the six months is a very low protein diet of dead Mediterranean grasses that require 28% protein tubs to boost the livestock protein to acceptable levels.

I am told that at one time before the European invasion of California, it was a perennial grass country and that the variety of species both plant and animal was much larger than today. Well, I’m here to tell you all that the Mediterranean annual grass conditions of today’s grazing land can be changed. How can that be? By the introduction of Perla grass. It’s a perennial that was imported into California in 1954 by the state agriculture department as a possible replacement for the native perennial that was lost when the land was being broken up into small sections. When the Homestead Act became law in 1862, the grazing livestock remained on the 160-acre property year-round and with 365 days a year of grazing, perennials couldn't stand it. They require a time off for rest that most didn’t get but what could withstand this kind of grazing pressure were the annual grasses from the Mediterranean area that had a similar climate to ours. So, today we have a multitude of Mediterranean annuals, most with prickly seed heads. 

Best Crop Yet

After a great rain season last year, we had an amazing Perla grass crop that was as high at 7 feet tall in some places. Here we are harvesting the seed to plant on more places on the ranch.

But what I have found on our ranch that can compete with our annual grass range land is Perla Grass. It still needs a rest time to reinvigorate itself, so management is necessary. Our California annual grasses need some management and rest time also to be at their productive best. Sounds like winning for both annuals and perennials. 

I hope that the amount of extra time and work won’t be the Achilles Heel because establishing Perla grass can be very challenging but the extra management to the already established annual grasses I believe will pay for the Perla grass introduction. My age at 89 allows me the time to try different things to improve the health of the land and if you took some of these ideas to your local banker he or she would probably take you to the exit door. So what remains is the fact that our planet Earth needs a lot of help so it can continue to feed, clothe, and give us a place we’re all proud to call home. So Perla grass might be a very small part of California's answer to our grazing lands but I’m going to give it a try anyway and see if it can become commercially viable. 

              See Ya,

                Jack 

See how we harvest the seed in the video below:

We started out collecting seed by hand with a plastic bag, but John created a bucket cover where we can harvest more efficiently from our crop.