Posted 2007-04-02 1:10 PM (#58302) Subject: getting rid of weeds
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 560 Location: Mena, AR
My green pasture is full of broad leaf weeds and what I call "chick-weed" & "shunk plant". Can I put down a weed killer like I would use on my lawn, or do I need to look for something else? Normally I just mow and that seem to do the control pretty well, but I've got such a good crop of weeds this year, that might not be enough.
Posted 2007-04-02 5:37 PM (#58326 - in reply to #58302) Subject: RE: getting rid of weeds
Member
Posts: 35 Location: Milton, FL
I tried a product called 2,4D and it seems to do a great job on all my weeds. We were told that it was safe to let the animals out as soon as it dried. We gave it overnight and they were all fine the next day. I have a friend who uses this twice a year and has very few weeds. Seems to be effective so far.
Posted 2007-04-02 6:08 PM (#58328 - in reply to #58302) Subject: RE: getting rid of weeds
Veteran
Posts: 150 Location: Le Claire IA
My hay guy/farmer says to use Pasture Pro over 24D. My bottle of 24D says 2 weeks...because of that...I have a lot of weeds. PP had a quicker time to release the horses on the pasture. That's what I'm getting this year.
Posted 2007-04-02 6:22 PM (#58330 - in reply to #58302) Subject: RE: getting rid of weeds
Expert
Posts: 2958 Location: North Carolina
Betty .. How large is your pasture? Lawn chemicals are about the same stuff as pasture chemicals. They're just packaged for the consumer with the killer mark-up. But it'll take a bunch of quart bottles to do 20 ac. And a wheel barrow of money... Ag chem places will sell a 2 1/2 gallon jug of 2,4 D for less $$$
Do you have a sprayer?
The first step to effective weed control is to identify the weeds. If you already know this, you're one step ahead.
Then research the control formulae. For example. on Broad leaf weeds.. 2,4 D is good. Dicamba is good too. But mix the two together and the result is better than either alone.
Posted 2007-04-02 7:43 PM (#58331 - in reply to #58302) Subject: RE: getting rid of weeds
Veteran
Posts: 235 Location: Keymar,Maryland
So far spot on but the real question why do you have such a high weed infestation?. Applying herbicide every year gets expensive and invariably takes more every year. I highly recommend rotational grazing, frequent mowing, and cut half leave half. Consider anything shorter than 3" overgrazed. Weed infestation is a sign of overgrazed spotty pasture. Tight sod squeezes out weeds and prevents weed seed from getting to the soil.Just my 2 cents and I always urge everyone to visit www.safergrass.org. Rich
Posted 2007-04-02 9:06 PM (#58342 - in reply to #58302) Subject: RE: getting rid of weeds
Member
Posts: 44 Location: Montana
I don't know if some states have a restriction on what you can use but up in Montana we use a product called Weed Master. It works very well but it is slow. I like it because it dose not kill the grass just everything else. We have allot of HoundsToung and it cleans it up well. It does smell so the horses stay away from it in the patches that I spry. On my large fields that I spray all over I keep my horses off it for 2 weeks. Allot of weed problems come from not catching the mother plant and then when it seeds you have it all over the place. Good luck
Posted 2007-04-03 8:48 AM (#58380 - in reply to #58302) Subject: RE: getting rid of weeds
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 455 Location: Texas
Originally written by Charmer88 on 2007-04-02 6:08 PM
My hay guy/farmer says to use Pasture Pro over 24D. My bottle of 24D says 2 weeks...because of that...I have a lot of weeds. PP had a quicker time to release the horses on the pasture. That's what I'm getting this year.
I have used Pasture Pro also. Its main ingredient is 2,4D. I bought and used it before I knew anything about grass or weeds, because it said it killed chickweed and dandelions better than straight 2,4D. I was using it on a yard application, not a pasture, so all I did was keep the dog off it for a day. Anyway, it seemed to work well.
But Rich M. sees the bigger picture and posted a good response. Betty, it sounds like you normally have the mowing part down.
Posted 2007-04-03 9:36 PM (#58431 - in reply to #58302) Subject: RE: getting rid of weeds
Regular
Posts: 50 Location: Colorado
We use the 2,4 D in the field sprayer - once the weeds are actively growing which around here won't be for another month. Nothing works better on the knapweed and thistles around here.
But I wonder how hard it is truly on the dogs. We lost one from stomach cancer a few years ago, and now our other has been diagnosed with same. We were very careful to keep the pets out of the pasture for a few weeks after spraying, but even still... I wonder. The vet thinks it could be from residue on the paws and the dogs licking them.
Posted 2007-04-04 10:07 AM (#58458 - in reply to #58302) Subject: RE: getting rid of weeds
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 560 Location: Mena, AR
Thanks for the advice. I've got aprox 4 acres of pastures with 2 to 3 horses on it depending on if anything is at the trainers or not. Right now the grass is about 3 -4 inches high, in the summer, the grass can range from 1 inch to 4 inches depending on if we've had any rain. The coverage is pretty good. When we first moved in 10 years ago, there were just a few tuffs of grass here & there.
I don't have any sprayer equipment, so if I do a liquid weed killer, I'll have to find someone to do it for me. I guess I'll go to the farm store and see what they have. I feritilize twice a year. I've got my bags of feritilizer, but wasn't sure if I should put it down before the weed killer or not. I didn't mow as much last year as in previous years, so perhaps that is why I have so many weeds this year.
Posted 2007-04-04 11:41 AM (#58469 - in reply to #58458) Subject: RE: getting rid of weeds
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 303 Location: Grapeland, Texas
I have mine sprayed with Grazon. I think the hot dry weather last year did such a number on the grass down here the weeds took over. I had been mowing pretty regular but diesel prices got so high last year I figured it was cheaper to spray than to mow. Seems like all that was growing last year was weeds. Also did a soil sample this year. Have you ever had your pastured limed? That helps the grass too. If you do a sample it will tell you what you need. Healthy grass will choke out a lot of weeds.
Posted 2007-04-04 1:46 PM (#58479 - in reply to #58302) Subject: RE: getting rid of weeds
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 500 Location: West TN
Do you have any cotton planted near you? If so, make sure that there is no wind blowing the day you spray. 2, 4-D will cause extensive damage to cotton. It is also bad to drift. If you spray and it drifts, you will be held liable. With farmers moving to this new flex cotton, the cost would be very high if it got away from you. I spray this on all my pastures, but make sure that I get it done early before I have to worry about it messing up any row crop.
getting rid of weeds
