I WANT MY SEEDS ! ! [shameless vanity]

I'm just trying to help you figure out what you want to do by providing hard information.

The grasses you selected are not native, but they may in fact be OK depending upon what you are trying to accomplish. They certainly aren't registered as noxious weeds, but then there are a lot of things that are really bad that aren't... yet, which may be something you don't want to deal with later.

I am no expert on establishing native grasses. In fact, I am currently doing an experiment where I hope to re-establish a few small meadows. It isn't easy or cheap to do, nor should everybody just be expected to attempt it, much less punished if they don't succeed. I just wanted to learn how to do it.

What I can tell you is which natives seem to grow well by location, depending upon soil, competitors, water, and weather. I can also tell you which natives compete better with weeds. I can tell you who the good vendors are. I don't know a vegetation contractor but I know those who do.

Let me know if I can help.

Thank you. I will be too busy next week to do much of anything about it, but after next weekend I'll be able to sort it out. What I want to accomplish is to keep my orchard producing grasses for my goats to eat, and this mixture of seeds are supposed to grow at different times, thereby providing a somewhat continuous cycle of sprouting. I wish I'd thought of you before I did this. [Stupid stupid stupid.]

I'll get in touch with you in about ten days and see if you can help further.
Truly........thank you.

Stupid stupid stupid.

Maybe not. Actually, I think you might have made a good choice for goats, as long as the fence has a buffer around it outside of which you could manage any escapees. It seems to me from here that if you plan for containing the forage you may be successful in providing higher production for your goats without causing a problem. I imagine you do have a fence because I would think that predation of your livestock would otherwise be a problem.

Most native grasses would probably be insufficiently productive for goats with the possible exception of California Brome (Bromus carinatus), which is a pretty good forage grass and a perrennial, thus it would not require reseeding every year (although it only lives four or five years depending upon how you treat it). The seed ain't cheap, but it's getting better. OTOH, although the seed you bought is probably cheaper, if your goat over-grazes it, you would have to reseed every year.

In any case, your success in managing forage for your animals would depend heavily upon how you manage the way they graze (eg rotational grazing). I don't know how much time you intend to spend doing that, but a lot can be accomplished relatively inexpensively with portable electric fencing.

We have a great 8 foot predator fence around the orchard, but haven't gotten into the portable fencing yet. That's next, because I want them to graze on the poison oak, berries, etc. around the property next to the road. Tying them out there just doesn't work. They always manage to nearly commit suicide with all the twisting around they do. (these are not very smart goats)

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