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Most studies of smooth brome have focused on its maintenance as a desirable forage grass in seeded pasture. Several of these studies indicated clipping smooth brome during active growth lessens herbage production. For example, Teel (1956), Reynolds and Smith (1962), and Eastin et al. (1964) demonstrated that smooth brome was most easily damaged by grazing or cutting after tiller elongation began in the spring. These results are explained by reduced secondary tillering in smooth brome following growing point removal. Under these conditions, regrowth can only take place by the initiation of new tillers from basal buds, which is inhibited by poorly developed basal buds and low root carbohydrate levels (Paulsen and Smith 1968).

Prescribed fire has been used to control or reduce smooth brome in native prairie with some success. Generally, single burns conducted in late April and in May, presumably at tiller elongation or after, have been effective in reducing smooth brome (Old 1969, Blankespoor 1987, Blankespoor and Larson 1994), whereas single burns conducted earlier have not (Garrett 1992). However, no study has reported the effects of fire on smooth brome as it matures through a spring growing season. This study quantified changes in smooth brome tiller density and biomass following single and repeated prescription burns at four distinct growth stages.