By Jillian Turbeville
As a Master’s student, I’ve had the unique opportunity to explore a question that sits at the intersection of lawn improvement and sustainable agriculture: how can we successfully produce hard fescue seed in northern Minnesota? Hard fescue is considered a low-input turfgrass, requiring less fertilizer, mowing, and irrigation than other cool-season turfgrasses (Braun et al., 2020). However, the seed can be difficult to source due to its limited domestic production. Expanding seed production to northern Minnesota could help meet the rising demand while providing additional benefits, such as producing regionally adapted lawn seed and offering an erosion control option for crop farmers.
An advantage of hard fescue seed production is the ability to harvest seed from the same stand over multiple years; this is not the case with the current perennial ryegrass seed production system in Minnesota. While multi-year seed harvests are a major advantage, the crop’s biggest challenge is the establishment year. Hard fescue requires a full growing season for establishment, followed by winter vernalization before it can produce seed. Even though hard fescue has a relatively high market value to offset that lost year, many growers hesitate to give up immediate revenue. Fortunately, northern Minnesota farmers have already adopted an intercrop model with perennial ryegrass grown under spring wheat (Ehlke & Vellekson, 1998). By harvesting wheat in year one, growers generate revenue while ryegrass is established underneath. The remaining wheat stubble after harvest helps insulate and protect the stand over winter. This raises the question of whether hard fescue, which establishes much more slowly than ryegrass, can successfully fit into a similar cropping system.
We established trials at two locations in Roseau, Minnesota, using ten treatments grouped by strategies (1) spring wheat intercropping (Figure 1), (2) summer establishment without a companion crop, (3) fall cereal rye intercropping, and (4) a dormant seeding approach designed to give hard fescue the earliest possible spring start. Each system allowed us to compare hard fescue planted alone, planted with a companion crop, and companion crops alone as controls.
We evaluated the project in three phases. First, we measured establishment data using seedling counts, tiller counts, and plant height to understand how seeding time and crop competition affected early stand development. After the companion crop harvest in 2024, we measured canopy spread and stand recovery to see how well hard fescue filled in. Finally, we harvested hard fescue seed in 2025 (Figure 2) to evaluate how each system performed from a production standpoint.
Year one companion crop yields were not significantly affected by intercropping with hard fescue. Within each site, wheat and cereal rye yields were similar between monocrop and intercropped treatments. Spring wheat (T2, T3, and T10) showed no meaningful yield reduction when grown with hard fescue and cereal rye (T7 and T8) also performed similarly within the two sites (Figure 3). Overall, these results show that hard fescue can be established without sacrificing first-year companion crop revenue.
Hard fescue seed yield in the following year was strongly influenced by the establishment strategy. As we initially hypothesized, seeding hard fescue and spring wheat at the same time did not result in acceptable hard fescue yields. However, we did identify other seeding approaches, both with and without a cash crop, that may offer more promising alternatives for seed producers.
Moving forward, tracking second and third year hard fescue seed yields will be important to understand the longevity of the stand. We also plan to strengthen the economic analysis of each system and explore additional companion crops, such as field pea. I am excited to be working on such an impactful project. I hope in the future this work will contribute to a seed production system that supports growers, strengthens regional agriculture, and improves access to turfgrass seed that in turn supports a more sustainable lawn.
References
Braun RC, Patton AJ, Watkins E, et al. Fine fescues: A review of the species, their improvement, production, establishment, and management. Crop Science. 2020; 60: 1142–1187.
Ehlke, N., & Vellekson, D. (1998). Progress report on grass seed production research. University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy. (Accessed 1 March 2026).