Thistles

You can get two birds with one stone by improving your grazing management. Read the rotational grazing sticky at the top of this forum if you haven't already.

We had a bunch of thistles on our place when we first moved here. I got rid of them by mowing them right as they started to bloom- the theory being that the plants will bleed to death at that time.

I did that for a couple of years in a row and pretty soon there were no thistles and the grass we had planted took over. Since we cut that field for hay a couple of times a year, the thistles now cannot get established again.

We are starting to get them in our yard, though, after 3 years of using sheep as lawn mowers. They eat everything BUT thistles. So this year I'm conducting a war on thistles in the yard. Every few days I go out with a hoe and chop the ones I find down- cutting pretty deep into the root to do it. I hope that will be adequate. We'll see.

I have more thistles this year than ever! We are coming out of a drought and I have never seen so many weeds and cactus in the pasture. This is the first time I have ever seen burdock, thankfully there is only one, killing starts today. Need to turn off computer and go get salt and pruners and get to work.

why I burn my thistles if you just cut them down and they have a seed head...that seed head has a 100 seeds in it and some of them will still mature with the plant cut off and dry and come up next year...when I started burning it all stopped...

....I also know no matter what your soil is if your neigbor or the road ditch has thistles and does not take them out before the seed podes go in the wind YOU WILL HAVE SOME IN 2 YEARS no matter your soil not millions but some

They are very responsive to Roundup. I spot spray on a a day without absolutely no wind.

I only did mine one year and haven't seen any since. They are distinctive looking. You can spray them when they are barely up. Saves on the amount of spray you use.

Jay. I gotta tell you, thistles also thrive in high calcuim soil that I have. And I do some spot spaying every year.
LJ Thistles are mostly biennial. Fall spray with grazon is very effective. If the thistles start to stalk, many hericides are not effective. Ally works great then.
You have already been preached at, so I will refrain from that and give you a couple of observations. Here distu;rbed dirt like badger hole or new fence post will likely have a thistle next year. The more residue and grass left in the pasture in the fall the less thistles next spring.

Agree 100 % .....My soil has a ph of 8.9 ,and boy do the thistles thrive.
The Canada thistle gives me more grief then a gold digging ex wife .
~ blush ~

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Allen; yes, we released the musk thistle weavils several years ago, and, they do make a difference. It seems they are especially effective on the early flowering plants. They don't eradicate the thistle but do seem to be helping on thick infestations.

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Each soil/geographic area provides unique opportunities for weeds, and they do adapt.
I wasn't preaching, merely pointing out a few things. Some folks like to think outside the box. I know it won't change minds when it comes to spray/no spray.

Jay, that wasn't directly at you or anyone in particular, but overall tone. I am in total agreement with organic methods, where they can be applied, my garden is such a place. I see an attitude amoung many that if it can be done in a garden or small acreage that it should be able to be done anywhere. It probably could if adequate labor and rescources(Money) were available.
Let's look at L&J situation. 60 beef cattle depending on class, cows, calves or yearling as to how much pasture is involved. I would expect at least in excess of 100 acres. In my area 60 cows would need 300 acres of pasture. He states that the thisles are "overrunning the pasture". Hand digging a 100 acres of badly infested pasture would be a monumental task, ie not very feasible. The cost to totally optimize soil with NPK, micronutrients and pH would run hundreds of dollars/acre and still not solve the thistle problem this year.
If this is as bad as it sounds with;out some chemical control, the neighbors, county weed board and his cattle are not going to be happy.
A couple other comments. Thistles do not come up from the root, If you cut the root an inch below the soil line it is done. If you leave any stalk or leaf it will regrow and bloom.
I have thistle weavils in this area, they do destroy a lot of seed but will not control thistles . In nature creatures usually do not eliminate their food scource as that results in their elimination.
Now a true story. Afew years ago we had a grasshopper outbreak in my area. This was not a few hopper eating some bean in the garden this was in plague perportions. 40 foot pine trees killed, mature mulberry tree killed, one guys painted fence posts had the paint all eaten off. A 30-50 border of my alfalfa fields were killed, not just eaten killed, did not come back the next spring. In my creek pasture the grass on the creek bank berm was killed the next year I had wall to wall thistles and have been fighting that area since.
As I alluded too in my statement about leaving residue and ungrazed grass in the pasture decreasing thistle problems, I would guess that the grass sward in J&Ls pasture is less than optimal resulting in the thistles getting a foot hold. Overgrazing is the most common cause of this, either overstocking, grazing too early or too late in the season, or poor growing conditions. AS WJMartin stated after the drought damaged his grass sward weeds are filling the space.
Off my soapbox

They defnently help on keeping the plant numbers down.