Common Names: Whisky Grass, Broomsedge, Broomsedge bluestem, Beardgrass, Sage grass, Sedge grass, Deceptive bluestem, Smooth bluestem, Yellowsedge bluestem, broomstraw
Scientific Name: Andropogon virginicus
Where in the Succession: Low fertility exploiter

Whisky Grass is a warm-season perennial tufted grass species, growing between 0.5 and 1m in height. It can be commonly mistaken in Australia for Kangaroo Grass and Grader Grass.

It is native to eastern North America and further south into Central America, and has now been introduced across many parts of the world. It is quite adaptable to climate, growing from cool temperate winters into humid subtropical conditions with a preference for the coastal regions of New South Wales and Southern QLD.

Where will I find Whisky Grass growing, and why is it growing there?

Whisky Grass is much the same as its' fellow low-fertility exploiters, in that it most often finds itself occupying disturbed landscapes that have provided the conditions for it to start. Some of the common characteristics of these areas include:

•  Abandoned agricultural land
• Overgrazed and poorly managed pastures
• Roadsides
• Low-quality, low-nutrient-level soils
• Recently disturbed soils

How can we manage Whisky Grass?

• Alter your grazing patterns. Whisky Grass thrives on poor grazing management, where overgrazing of desirable species occurs, opening up the opportunity for Whisky Grass to come in and fill that niche. To overcome this, we need to change how we manage our livestock, focusing on incorporating adequate recovery after grazing as the first step. Then, to manage the sites where Whisky Grass is already dominant, we can use the tool of increasing livestock density to impact its growth. This tool will need to be combined with others further down the list to get the best results overall - because, as we like to say, there is no single silver bullet solution to the challenges that we face.
• Increase plant diversity, particularly legumes. We need to focus on getting our preferred species to come in and outcompete the Whisky Grass. And in landscapes with lower soil fertility, this won't be easy with our grass species; instead, we need to look further down the plant succession and bring in our more palatable accumulator species. Our herbs and legumes will help the landscape fulfil the role the Whisky Grass is trying to achieve, whilst providing adequate nutrition for our livestock to graze on. These species can be added by sowing them directly or by spreading them in the right areas at the right time of year for maximum germination.
• Increase soil organic matter and fertility. As we've discussed, Whisky Grass prefers growing in lower-quality soils that have become tired over time and can no longer support our higher-order species. If we can come in and assist those landscapes by feeding our soils and improving their quality, we can create the conditions for our preferred species to grow. Some ways that we could go about doing this include bringing in compost, liquid fertilisers like liquid compost or worm extract or even just products like old straw and hay to start a process.
• Change our hydrology. The common trend amongst many of our low-fertility exploiters is that they will happily grow in drier conditions with low soil moisture. If we can step in and add structures like contours, we can slow the movement of water across our landscape, storing more of it in the soil where it’s useful and can support our higher-order species' growth.
• Use mechanical intervention. In cases where there is a dominance of Whisky Grass, livestock will be less effective as a tool. We can use machines and slash or mulch areas with Whisky Grass, wait for it to re-shoot, and then bring the livestock to graze the more palatable younger growth. Post-grazing with livestock, we aim to add our more desirable species where they don't face competition from Whisky Grass and to give the plants time to recover before bringing the livestock back.

As you can see, we have a number of options to experiment with, and the best results will often yield from combining many of them into a systematic plan that you implement over time. Being prepared to wait is the most important part, as the results won't happen in the first year. Especially when trying to manage these perennial grasses that are deemed weeds, they are much trickier to remove from a landscape than our annual weeds. But, with management focused on aggrading and improving our landscapes, the results we are after will happen.

How to make the most of your Whisky Grass

• As a Soil Indicator: Low nitrogen, low phosphorus, high magnesium, low organic matter levels, acidic soils. It can tolerate high levels of aluminium and other heavy metals.
• Livestock: Livestock will graze young growth, but it will quickly mature and lose its palatability. Interestingly, one study that used fire as a management tool measured young plants recovering from the fire at 13% protein, which then declined to 6% over time1 . However, this was most likely due to the increase in available nutrients after burning. Therefore, managing young growth with livestock may require supplementary feeding to maintain performance.
• Medicinal: There is very little research on Whisky Grass and its medicinal uses. But one 2020 study found that extracts from the plant appear to be effective against several human diseases, including diabetes and cancer2 . Obviously, this is still very early, but they did find that their flavonoids had significant antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

Original article credit to Tarwyn Park Training. Sign up to their newsletter here.