Pasture Weed Control Ralph E. Whitesides Utah State University Plants, Soils, and Climate

1. Pasture Weed Control Ralph E. Whitesides Utah State University Plants, Soils, and Climate

2. Is it possible to fight weeds effectively on small acreages in Utah?

3. What is a weed? Any plant growing where you don’t want it. Are weeds bad? What function do weeds play in the environment? What are weeds telling us?

4. Why Worry About Weeds? • They are just plants. Right? • Its not like you have a rampaging grizzly in your garden. Right? • No!

5. Once weeds move in they stay. • They multiply. • Soon the unwanted and uninvited guests have taken your land and won’t give it back without a fight!

6. What is the first step? • Take inventory of property • If you try to control weeds without a game plan there is a good chance you won’t succeed.

7. 4 Golden Guidelines of Weed Control for Small Acreage Properties • Know what you want to do with your property. (Why did you buy it in the first place?) • Promote healthy vegetation. • Implement good land use practices. • No one weed control method works alone.

8. Controlling weeds in your pasture Weeds are best controlled through an integrated approach using several of the following methods • Prevention • Detection • Control • Cultural • Mechanical • Biological • Chemical • Restoration

9. Two Working rules for controlling weeds in your pasture“Prevention” • Prevent weeds in the first place • If you cannot do #1 everything else will be more work, more time, and more money. More of everything!

10. Controlling weeds in your pasture How practical is Rule #1?

11. Controlling weeds in your pasture How practical is Rule #1? Where do weeds come from?

12. Controlling weeds in your pasture How practical is Rule #1? Where do weeds come from? (prevention) • Seed Bank in the soil • Irrigation Water • Off-site Feed – Hay • Bedding materials • Wind borne – animal borne (field bindweed seeds can survive 144 hrs in stomach of migrating birds) • Seed Mixtures

13. Controlling weeds in your pasture How do we implement Rule #2? (control) • Management • Knowledge • Judgment • Experience • Work – Time – Money • More Work – Time – Money • Constant Work – Time – Money

14. Controlling weeds in your pasture How do we implement Rule #2? (control) What caused us to get weeds in the first place?

15. Controlling weeds in your pasture How do we implement Rule #2? (control) What caused us to get weeds in the first place? The answer to that question will aid us in our work to control weeds.

16. Controlling weeds in your pasture How do we implement Rule #2? (control) What caused us to get weeds in the first place? The answer to that question will aid us in our work to control weeds. Grazing Issues – Overgrazing, timing, wrong animals Soil Issues – Fertility, salt, texture, etc Water Issues – irrigation and natural precipitation, too much or too little Seed mixture- not suited to environment

17. Controlling weeds in your pasture How do we implement Rule #2? (control) Cause: Improper grazing – treating the pasture as a corral instead of as a pasture.

18. Controlling weeds in your pasture How do we implement Rule #2? (control) What is a Corral? What is a Pasture?

19. Controlling weeds in your pasture We may want something like this?

20. Controlling weeds in your pasture These may be more realistic.

21. Controlling weeds in your Pastures • “Detection” • What am I trying to control? Identify the weed. • Grass – Broadleaf • Annual – Perennial • Edible – Poisonous • Spreading – Non-spreading • HOW DID IT GET TO BE A WEED?

22. Controlling weeds in your pastures • Whatever caused the weed to become a problem or concern in the first place must be addressed to help you in controlling it. • Each potential solution is as individual as is the problem and the person wanting to solve it.

23. Controlling weeds in your pastures “Control” • General Guidelines: • Proper irrigation and soil fertility • Mowing to prevent from going to seed • Spot spraying as soon as weeds are detected • Monitoring the Pasture (high eyes to acre ratio)

24. Range and Pasture Weed Management

25. 2,4-D / MCPA Amber Cimarron / Escort Cimarron Max Clarity / Banvel Crossbow Curtail Garlon / Remedy Grazon P+D Journey Milestone Plateau Redeem R&P Roundup Spike Transline / Reclaim Telar Tordon Transline Weedmaster Approved Herbicides

26. 2,4-D / MCPA Amber Cimarron / Escort Cimarron Max Clarity / Banvel Crossbow Curtail Garlon / Remedy Grazon P+D Journey Milestone Plateau Redeem R&P Roundup Spike Transline / Reclaim Telar Tordon Transline Weedmaster Approved Herbicides

27. Dyer’s Woad Isatis tinctoria

29. Perennial Pepperweed Lepidium latifolium

31. Hoary Cress Cardaria draba

33. Cimarron • Metsulfuron (Escort renamed) • Hoary cress, dyer’s woad, perennial pepperweed, thistles, houndstongue • Must add surfactant or COC • No grazing restrictions • Tall fescue and perennial ryegrasses are sensitive (damage)

34. Cimarron Max • Metsulfuron + dicamba + 2,4-D • Ratio: 5 oz Part A + 2.5 gal Part B • Greater weed spectrum controlled • Must add surfactant or COC • Dicamba’s grazing restrictions • Tall fescue and perennial ryegrasses are sensitive (damage)

35. Telar • Chlorsulfuron • Hoary cress, dyer’s woad, perennial pepperweed, thistles, houndstongue • Must add surfactant or COC • No grazing restrictions • Tall fescue and perennial ryegrasses are sensitive (damage)

36. Russian Knapweed Centaurea repens

38. Spotted Knapweed Centaurea maculosa

40. Yellow Starthistle Centaurea solstitialis

42. Milestone • Aminopyralid • Knapweeds and thistles • Weak on mustards • Closely related to Tordon • Not “Restricted-Use” • Wildland and recreation sites

43. Medusahead Taeniatherum caput-medusae

45. Plateau • Imazapic • Winter annual grasses • Downy Brome • Medusahead • Rangeland improvement • Safe on most established perennial grasses

46. Some poisonous weeds of pasture

47. Houndstongue Cynoglossum officinale

48. Houndstongue • Foothills, pastures, roadsides • Horses, cattle, sheep • Fresh (unpalatable) or in hay • Cummulative, may taint milk

49. Houndstongue(Symptoms) • Dullness, wandering • Increased pulse and respiration • Weakness, nervousness • Constipation or diarrhea • Death by liver hemorrhage

50. Houndstongue(Management) • Avoid contaminated hay • Digging / pulling • Escort (Cimmaron), Ally, Tordon, Clarity (Banvel), 2,4-D