With winter feed being the single largest cost in most livestock operations, minimizing hay feed is a key driver of cow herd profitability. Barricade, a dryland mix from Barenbrug USA, can provide a grazing solution for the critical fall, winter and early spring periods.

Barricade is a cool season grass mix designed for drier climates, which fills forage gaps in the critical grazing periods of fall, winter and early spring. This contributes to ranch profitability by providing significant cost savings by minimizing hay feeding and increasing carrying capacity. Designed specifically for new planting or inter-seeding into rangeland and dryland pastures, Barricade contains the latest varieties of grasses selected for germination, establishment and growth under low rainfall conditions.

Consisting of newly developed varieties of Meadow Brome and Smooth Brome developed in collaboration with USDA-ARS, as well as drought tolerant varieties of Tall Fescue and Intermediate Wheatgrass, Barricade is a high-producing cool-season grass seed mix that works well in low precipitation zones (12 – 18”), and also works in areas that have limited irrigation, such as spring runoff irrigation common in many areas.

Barricade is also coated with Yellow Jacket Enhanced Seed Coating which helps with soil/seed contact. By absorbing nearly 600 times its weight in water, it is the ideal forage for rangeland seeding applications.

With Barricade, pastures will green up earlier which means it will work well for spring calving pasture, fall grazing or storing for winter grazing. Early indications show pastures that use Barricade produce up to 87 percent more forage during critical periods compared to native pastures This results in a significant reduction in feed and labor costs.