Prairie Junegrass

Prairie junegrass is a component of many native plant communities. It greens up early in the spring and provides good early spring forage and fair late spring forage for livestock. It is considered a fair to good forage for elk throughout the year and is desirable forage for deer and antelope in the spring and early summer.

Prairie junegrass is used as a component of native seed mixtures in revegetation of mined lands, heavy use areas and other surface disturbed lands.

Prairie junegrass is cold, heat and drought tolerant and grows on rangeland meadows, plains, mountain foothills and open forestlands. It does best at 12- 20 inches annual precipitation. It is most commonly found at elevations from 4,000- 8,000 feet, but occurs up to 11,500 feet in the central Rocky Mountains.

It is found primarily as a component of native plant communities in open and rocky areas. It is best adapted to well-drained soils such as silts to loams to sandy loams. It prefers 6.5- 8.0 pH soils. It has good tolerance to fire.

Prairie junegrass greens up early in the spring. Grazing deferment until plants are 4- 6 inches tall is recommended to ensure the health of the plant and to reduce over-grazing. It is considered good forage in early spring, but as it matures in later spring, it becomes tough and less palatable. This grass has moderate to high tolerance to grazing.