It's not surprising a man deeply rooted to a place would want that place to prosper. In Ken Lenox's case, that means taking care of business and the landscape. The business is cattle ranching. The landscape is increasingly native grass.

"Native warm-season grass, for my type of operation, works fantastically well," said Lenox.

Lenox is a fifth generation cattle rancher in south central Missouri. His great great grandfather homesteaded the farm in 1821 when warm-season grass covered about two-thirds of the state. Lenox ranches about 3,500 acres, half of which is leased. He calves both spring and fall.

"In the early summer months, cattle will gain faster on new warm-season grass than almost any other grass," said Lenox.

He added that establishing native grass was a pretty simple process. First, he removed brush and timber. Then some fine-tuning to his grazing scheme allowed Mother Nature to do the hard work.

"Practically all your old pastures contain some warm-season grass. You just have to fertilize, graze short in the early spring, then pull off, and native grass will show up in June," said Lenox.

Cattle aren't the only critters that gain from native grass. Take quail (which, as any bird hunter will tell you, is becoming increasingly hard to do). Not long ago, Lenox found only 3 or 4 quail coveys on the farm. Now he's up to 10 to 12 coveys, which he believes is because he uses warm-season grasses and follows other wildlife friendly practices.

"In terms of wildlife, warm-season grass is wonderful. With the grasses coming back, I have more quail than I've had in years," he said.

While Ken Lenox appreciates the quail, without healthy well-fed cattle he would be out of business. That's not something his wife Joyce, or their four children, would recommend.

So for healthy bovines and bottom lines, he rotates four herds through 65 different pastures, most of which contain a variety of warm-season grasses. In a few days, the cattle clean up one pasture. Then Lenox moves them to another. This system gives the grass a chance to come back and keeps his cows fed with high-quality native grass during June, July and August.

"There's a lot more bites per acre off of your better warm-season grasses, but that's not an anti-fescue remark. We can't operate without fescue," Lenox explained. Fescue extends his grazing season first in the spring and again in the fall and winter. But it has limitations.

"If you have cattle on straight fescue, all you have to do is go out into a herd of cows and you can tell, their hair coat's rough, switch's on their tails are missing, they'll be sore-footed. Adding lespedeza and red clover will help alleviate those problems. The ideal thing is to have the right grass peaking at the right time for the right number of cattle."

Another downside to fescue is endophyte fungus. Most tall fescue in Missouri is infected with this fungus which is toxic to cattle. Besides producing less milk and being skinnier, cattle that ingest the fungus also run elevated body temperatures. Lenox knows the signs.

"When they get that fungus, they get a fever, and then they stand in ponds to cool themselves off. And of course they're not feeding when they're standing around in ponds."

Researchers at the University of Missouri recently found poorer reproductive performance in cattle that eat the endophyte-infected fescue. Lenox found a solution to that problem, too. "Calving percent will increase if you remove cows from infected fescue during summer months and switch them to warm-season grass," he said.

Lenox has a 94 percent calving rate for cows exposed to bulls. He has also noticed that his weaning weights have increased since going to native grasses. Handling of cattle and calves, de-worming, and mineral supplement regimens are the same as when his herds are feeding on fescue.

Warm-season grass also serves another purpose at Lenox's ranch--a place for calving.

"If you get a rough piece of weather in February, they can have their babies in this grass, off the damp ground, and the wind can't reach them. It's fantastic for calving purposes."

That grassy insulation gives wildlife habitat as well. "They've got a home there too," Lenox said.

To keep this multi-purpose grass flourishing, Lenox burns 200 to 400 acres of pasture every couple years. He's been using prescribed fires, as they're known in the trade, for close to 20 years. "Every year the grasses got better. They establish themselves in areas where they haven't been before."

Where grass has been burned, the fescue has moved out. Lenox sows lespedeza on rough ground, and seeds some other natives such as big bluestem and Indian grass, which he says "can go a long way to helping your pocketbook." Although, looking at a field right after it's burned, it's hard to imagine anything turning green soon in your wallet or your field.

Lenox would beg to differ. "Within 2 weeks after the fire runs through this, it will be so green, it almost hurts your eyes."