James Pratt

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Growing Love Grass Seed in Oklahoma

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Love grass is considered a weed by many farmers, but to Loren and Steve Pollard, it is a small but important part of their diversified agriculture operations.

Most farmers try to eradicate love grass from their fields. This tall grass is native to the prairie states. Yet unlike the native buffalo herds who thrive on this native plant, domestic livestock shun this tough, wiry plant. Yet the Pollards, who farm over twenty sections of land around Dover, Crescent, Hennessy and Kingfisher, Oklahoma, love grass seed has become a valued cash crop that has allowed Loren and now his son Steve to expand their operations to cover well over 20 sections of land in central Oklahoma.

“Love grass seed is very hard to grow” explains Steve. “We have to burn it in late March. We pay the Kingfisher Fire Department to come out and help us do a controlled burn. Harvesting time is very critical. We only have a couple of days to get the seed in so we have to monitor the crop very closely.” Like many crops, some years the Pollards are unable to harvest love grass seed. And unlike food crops such as wheat and soybeans, crop insurance is unavailable for love grass.

“The market for love grass seed is small but steady and profitable” explains Loren. “A lot of our seed goes overseas, and some goes to states such as Alabama and Louisiana and is used for road building projects.”

Because of the critical timing required to harvest love grass seed, the Pollards choose to harvest it themselves each year rather than use a custom cutter.
Love grass seed is very fine and requires special handling. Here Steve Pollard unloads seed to an awaiting grain truck.
Love grass requires a much finer screen than wheat because of the flea-sized grain kernal. This requires frequent cleaning of the screen in the back of the combine.
Because of the critical timing of the harvest, the Pollards will often harvest late into the night until the moisture content of the crop becomes too high.
The sun drops on the horizon as Steve Pollard continues the long task of harvest.
While the Pollards often hire custom cutters to combine their huge wheat fields, Steve still combines their much smaller patch of love grass seed himself because of the critical nature of the harvest and the fact most custom cutters don't have the necessary equipment to harvest the tiny love grass seed.
Love grass seed is about the size of a flea. Here Steve Pollard holds the harvested seed. "Actually this is the seed hull" explains Steve. "The seed is much smaller inside these hulls."
Love grass is very wiry and tough and requires frequent cleaning of the combine header.

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About James Pratt

I am an Oklahoma based writer, commercial photographer, editorial photographer and adventurer based in Oklahoma City. I love telling stories about people. A motorcycle is my preferred means of travel, and I have over 5,000 hours piloting small airplanes. My editorial photography has been published in hundreds of magazines and my commercial photography has been used by dozens of companies worldwide.

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4x5 film 4x5x365 agriculture Amazon Web Services bicycle Bill Dragoo BMW Brass Ball Bobbers combine Darwin Motorcycles dirt bike drag racing Edmond El Reno film Fortinet Guthrie Ilford Delta 100 Ilford Delta Pro 100 Ilford HP5 Jeep John Deere Kawasaki Kay Pratt Kodak TMAX-100 Lexington Micha Young motorcycle New Mexico Nikon Norman Conquest Oklahoma Oklahoma City Oklahoma Living Oklahoma Living Magazine Oklahoma Today Ride Oklahoma South Canadian River Thunder Valley Raceway Tombo Racing Tommy Bolton Toyo 45A Toyo VX-125 wheat harvest Wrangler
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