Will grass re-establish in Gulf Coast area pastures that were covered in murky, salty, or contaminated floodwaters for several weeks in September? That is a question agronomy researchers at Louisiana State University (LSU) aim to answer in the coming months. Plant and soil scientists are analyzing how best to manage pastures and hay fields that were swamped by water in the weeks following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Shannon Gonsoulin, owner of All Creatures Animal Hospital in New Iberia, La., has been helping livestock owners after the hurricanes. He says, “The salt water moved farther north (than normal), and I’m not sure how the cattle and pastures are going to handle it. Will the grass be dormant for a year and then come back? Will the grasses come back with salinity (saltiness)? These are all questions we don’t have answers to at this point.”

Ed Twidwell, extension forage specialist with the LSU AgCenter, has visited most of the floodwater-affected agricultural areas in Louisiana. “The biggest problem deals with the length of time the floodwaters stayed on the pasture and hay areas,” he said. “There are still some areas along the coast that remain underwater. The pastures in these areas may take a while to recover.”

In more northern areas, “the floodwaters may have been on fields from one to three days, and then receded,” Twidwell explained. “In these areas the bermudagrass is recovering pretty well, but other forage species such as bahiagrass and carpetgrass are more severely impacted