Controlling Weeds in a Drought Winter

The most important to remember in years of drought, such as in 2007 and forecasted for 2008, is to get the optimal production from pastures and hayfields as possible. One of the ways to do that is to control weeds. While many grass varieties do not have a high tolerance to drought conditions, many varieties of weeds do! These weeds will continue to grow without water and compete with grasses for nutrition and what little water is available, sometimes killing out grass stands. If you have weed problems, NOW IS THE TIME TO TAKE CARE OF THEM. When livestock and equine do not have adequate amounts of grass, they will start eating that green stuff that is in the pasture whether it’s trees or even weeds. Many of these weeds can be toxic to livestock and equine, given they eat the right amounts or eat the plant at the right stage of growth. Controlling weeds, not only gives the grass you have a chance to survive but will keep your animals healthy. The right time to start controlling winter annual weeds is IMMEDIATELY. They are growing at the same time as cool season grasses and need controlling.

Winter annuals weeds include: wild garlic, chickweed, henbit, Carolina geranium, horseweed, dandelion, curly dock, buttercup and thistles. If you wish to control these chemically, Cimarron Max, Crossbow, Curtail, ForeFront R&P and Grazon P+D are good options because they all contain 2,4D which means you will get little yellowing and stunting of cool season grasses. See chemical labels for grazing restrictions and application rates.

Should you wish to control these weeds biologically, pasturing goats is the best option. Goats are a browser and not a grazer, meaning they’d rather eat weeds, briars and brambles instead of grass. For this reason you can graze goats and hayfields without grass loss and with other varieties of livestock without grazing competition.