Fiddleneck weed problem

[StockDogLovr]

Hello,

We bought our 40 back in the fall of 2012, and it was fallow pastureland that was occupied by cheatgrass, foxtails and some native grasses, along with a host of noxious weeds. In the spring, we would get lots of pretty wild flowers. We fenced the property and grazed our horses and sheep on it, and the forage would last into late October/early November before we would have to supplement with hay.

We've been in a drought for the whole time we've been here, with 1/3 the rainfal we should get. I did have a county extension weed management advisor come out a couple of years ago and assess what was problematic here, how to improve the pasture, and he recommended over-seeding. At the time he was here, the pasture was already dried down, so he couldn't see what wildflowers we get here...

Fast forward to now. This year is a horrible year for fiddleneck, which is toxic to horses and cattle, less so to sheep. Our pasture is inundated, and I didn't realize what it was until too late. There are areas that are so thick with fiddleneck that no other plant can grow in the same space, so we are losing grazing acreage to this plant!

I'm in a panic what to do! 40 acres is a lot of space to deal with, and there's the added complication that part of the 40 is covered in old plum branch wood from an orchard that was cut down but never properly disposed of. So, I can't mow ever inch due to the wood that I can't even see at this point!

I found online that an herbicide called Milestone will kill fiddlneck and other broad leaf weeds, but leave the grasses alone, and that livestock don't need to be pulled off the pasture . It is extremely expensive. It also says not to seed grass for a year after application; however, it does have residual activity to prevent next season's broadleaf seeds from taking hold.

I have been out there manically mowing with my Swisher in the areas that are open, hoping that knocking this weed down will give what grasses there are a chance to grow up, meanwhile preventing reseeding, but this only can be done in the areas where there isn't plum wood in the way.

It's already so late in the weed's development - am I too late to even try to use the Milestone? We aren't assured more rain so over-seeding with grass at this point may be a waste of effort and money - grass seed is so expensive, too! We don't have irrigation so it would be "dry farming."

I'm additionally anxious about the mowing because I worry that the horses will consume the grass cuttings that include the fiddleneck; hoping they aren't that stupid since there is plenty of good graze out there as well.

Anyone out there have any thoughts or advice at this point? I contacted the extension guy again but haven't gotten a response yet.

I'm sure that part of this problem came about because I allowed the pasture to be over-grazed, but what can I do in a dry farming situation when I have a set amount of acreage? Pulling the animals off and feeding them hay is pretty expensive these days!

[geo in mi]

How many horses and sheep? Do they need the whole 40? You might figure out the area needed, with close rotational grazing, and work to a goal of renovating only that much on the first go 'round. You have a double problem with the foxtail, as I read the info on that--the dry seeds have barbs on them that are not good for horse mouths either....

Tackling a smaller area will allow you to mow it , maybe without the need of too much Milestone, since both foxtail and fiddlenecks are annuals that propagate by seed, and just in time mowing before they go to seed will do much toward eliminating it from a pasture plus saving wear and tear on your mower.. (By the way, if you use the manure from the horses in your garden--or the clipped grasses as mulch or compost makins, the residual effect of Milestone will kill tomatoes, lettuce, and other broadleaf veggies....)

Renovating will probably take some kind of light tillage in order to get some soil contact---not just simply overseeding. And you should add lots of nitrogen, and maybe lime, or you will be wasting your time, as the pasture is just plain worn out. That's why the fiddlenecks in the first place. And without water????

Good luck.

geo

[AmericanStand]

Originally Posted by StockDogLovr

I'm sure that part of this problem came about because I allowed the pasture to be over-grazed, but what can I do in a dry farming situation when I have a set amount of acreage?


Pulling the animals off and feeding them hay is pretty expensive these days!

But far cheaper than losing the entire 40 acres!
Id divide the stock off onto the smallest area I could keep them in and feed them hay .
While doing that Id start with a adjacent area and kill the Noxious weeds with roundup. Within a week or 2 that stuff would be dead and you could move your stock again to the smallest area of that that you could keep them in.
Id keep doing that till I had the 40 acres cleaned up. You would then keep rotating your stock onto these repeating small areas.

[geo in mi]

Originally Posted by AmericanStand

But far cheaper than losing the entire 40 acres!
Id divide the stock off onto the smallest area I could keep them in and feed them hay .
While doing that Id start with a adjacent area and kill the Noxious weeds with roundup. Within a week or 2 that stuff would be dead and you could move your stock again to the smallest area of that that you could keep them in.
Id keep doing that till I had the 40 acres cleaned up. You would then keep rotating your stock onto these repeating small areas.

Using Roundup would kill ALL the plants, but since both fiddleneck and foxtail propagate by seeds, they would resprout--for as long as there are any seeds in the soil that are allowed to grow.

[where I want to]

https://attra.ncat.org/calendar/ques...-in-my-pasture

I have a problem in that I have too many animals and my place is over grazed. But I found that if I increased the ph, it would almost eliminated the weeds that liked a low ph. I raised the ph with a sizable application of fresh horse manure in the late fall, followed by grass seeding in very eary spring. That and an application of goat lips have almost eliminated the ranuculus. And the water reed and a few other things. Now if I could find the key to getting rid of those awful english daisies.