Why we hate cheat grass

Why we hate cheat grass. Ann Kennedy, a USDA-Agricultural Research Service soil microbiologist at Washington State University is working diligently to find a method to selectively eliminate cheat grass. The reasons are many as you are about to hear. “Cheap grass is an invasive exotic and it can do a lot of harm to a lot of areas. It can affect cereal production by reducing the growth of the wheat, especially winter wheat. Winter wheat and cheat grass grow through the winter and if cheat grass can put on more roots in the late fall and early spring, it can actually choke out the wheat roots and not let the wheat pick up enough water. It's actually, not just wheat, it is every single plant that is growing during the early spring because the cheat grass put on these nice dense, fibrous roots which take up all the water in then they mature and flower way before everybody else can. She grass’s competitive advantage is that it can grow further into the winter and start up earlier in the spring than most other plants, especially crops. What has been happening in rangeland systems is that we have had this cheat grass, Medusa head come in and they are not like the bunch grasses that are in native rangeland. These bunch grasses are very clever about how they grow as a community because they give each other space. That space allows each plant to take up the water that is right there underneath the soil.