Cheat grass control -- Wash. State ???

[Kathie in Thorp]

Questions for anyone raising hay or cattle in WA: CHEAT GRASS! With all the big grass hay crops here, it's my understanding that we can't spray against it -- might touch a hay crop. A big-time hay grower neighbor says we just need to tear everything up, re-seed our roughly 20 acres, put in a an additional i$10,000 irrigation system (yeah . . . right!) to get rid of our not-yet-major-but-could-be-soon problem. Anyone got any good ideas about CG irradication that doesn't break the law? Cut/burn or ???? Thx!

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

And by the way, we're on the east side of WA, in the midst of one of the biggest export hay areas in the country.

 

[Howdyjabo]

I got in a lot of trouble a few years ago with cheat grass.
It came in strong the spring after a BAD drought. It was a warm wet spring and it grew like crazy.
I was having calves with severe accidosis and couldn't quite figure out why.
They were on a TMR that hadn't changed- my pastures are basically a loafing area.
I finally decided to test the grass that was new and explosive-- Dang, I could have fattened calves off it.
A week latter its nutritional value was less than straw.

My suggestion is to make it into hay/ haylage while its still potent-
Honestly I don't know how to handle it
Around here it just backed off when the pastures had a chance to recover. Not much can out compete fescue.

Theres a chance your neighbor could care less about you and whats best for your land- and is more concerned about your land being a contaminating factor to his land.

 

[dun]

In the sperit of neighborliness, why not ask your neighbors how they are going to prevent your cheat grass from invading their hay fields?

 

[Dave]

First of all you can darn sure spray cheat grass if you want to on your property. What you can't do is have wind drift that gets to your neighbors. From your name here I am assuming that you live in Thorp in the Kittitas Valley. Wind drift could be a problem in "Windburg". Picking a day when the wind isn't blowing there is a bit of an issue. But there is lots of spraying done in the valley by farmers.

Do as Dun suggested and ask your neighbor his plan for when your cheat invades his place. But before doing that you might check to see if cheat is on the noxious weed list. It wouldn't be good for him to point that out to you.

For a non-chemical control. If the area of cheat is small you can fence it off seperate and graze it hard in the early spring when animals will eat it.

I would suggest that you call Tip Hudson at WSU extension in Ellensburg. He is a great resource and local for you. He will be able to give you much better local to you advice than you can get here. He will know exactly what you can and can't do along with what does and doesn't work.

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

Thanks, all, and especially Dave (where are you?)! As you said, I think wind drift would be the problem here with the hay grower. Dave, in my former life in Idaho a couple years, they sprayed something in the Spring for cheat -- can't think of the name of it right now, but it was a Spring application.

I really need to talk to someone, other than than hay grower. I want it controlled on our place, and not getting invasive on any neighbor (and so far, far as I know, that's not an issue -- wind blows downwind to us from him). And also don't want him dictating to us, without more info.

This is the first year we've had cattle out there w/ early spring grasses, so we do have some catching up to do.

Thx! Kathie

 

[Sweet_Ag_Girl]

I've always known cheatgrass as downy brome. Its an annual, so mechanical control should be a good option if you don't want to spray just keep it from going to seedhead. Since its an annual probably a preemergenct herbicide would help like maybe Treflan. Just some thoughts, but check with local extension. Good luck!!

 

[dun]

This might be of interest:
Dated April 16, 2009

Source Contacts
Ann Kennedy, USDA-ARS Soil Scientist/Adj. Prof. Crop and Soil Sciences
509-335-1554, [email protected]

Robin Stanton Media Relations Manager, Washington, The Nature Conservancy
206-343-4345, ext. 338, [email protected]

Regional Scientists Receive $500,000 Grant to Test Weed-Fighting Bacteria
PULLMAN, Wash. — Scientists and land managers in Washington and Oregon have received a five-year, $500,000 grant from The Nature Conservancy to field test a bacteria that may give land managers a new tool to suppress cheatgrass and restore degraded rangeland.


Cheatgrass, also known as downy brome. Click image for a high resolution version.
Cheatgrass is an invasive annual weed that infests an estimated 50 million acres of rangeland in West. Cheatgrass grows in the late fall and early spring, outcompeting native plants. It dries out in the summer providing a continuous layer of fuel for wildfires, and it has the potential to destroy more than 100 million acres of sagebrush country.

"The use of naturally occurring bacteria as a bioherbicide against an invasive species represents a new concept for rangeland management," said Ann Kennedy, USDA-Agricultural Research Service Soil Scientist and adjunct professor of crop and soil sciences at Washington State University.

Kennedy identified the potential biological control agent during research on weed-suppressive bacteria. "It is capable of selectively inhibiting cheatgrass," she said.


Electron micrograph image of cheatgrass suppressive bacteria. Click image for a high-resolution version.
The microorganism — the bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens strain D7 — is native to Washington soils and has been shown to inhibit germinating cheatgrass seeds in laboratory, greenhouse and field trials while not harming other species.

The grant will enable researchers and land managers to evaluate the effectiveness of the bacteria under a range of environmental conditions with understory restoration in areas that have sagebrush cover. The results of this study will be used to develop management strategies that will both prevent further rangeland degradation and serve as a tool in restoring infested land.

Partnering with The Nature Conservancy on the project are Tami L. Stubbs, associate in research, WSU crop and soil sciences department, Tony Svejcar, USDA-ARS rangeland scientist in Burns, Ore.; the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service. The Conservancy collaborators are Sonia Hall, arid lands ecologist, and Chuck Warner, Moses Coulee conservation area program director.

The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people.

 

[Kingfisher]

In the sperit of neighborliness, why not ask your neighbors how they are going to prevent your cheat grass from invading their hay fields?

Cuz they ain't good neighbors?

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

KIngfisher, the neighbor is a pretty good guy -- no major beefs with him. But he makes lotza $$ from his export-quality hay every year (alf, timothy and orchard grass), so I think he's nervous about the wind drift. And we REALLY get wind here! 20 mph is pretty much an every-day forecast -- 50 mph is not unusual.

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

County Extension guy came out this afternoon. He'll get us some information on the product, and whether or not we have to hire a pro applicator to spray, but he suggests we do a Fall application of PLATEAU, which hits bi-annual grasses, but not most pasture perennial grasses, via soil absorption. He suggested pasture burning first, so that the spray actually hits the ground, and doesn't just sit on top of dead/matted stuff.

Have any of you used PLATEAU?

 

[TheLoneRanger]

you say burning, what about disking? can't burn in my area unless it is by accident.

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

Wouldn't disking tear up the "good grass"? We have alot of good grass; just don't want it choked out by the cheat.

We do have some new rules here -- used to be we could just burn our pastures with a local fire department burn permit -- now, as of last year, to do to anything but burn isolated brush piles, we have to apply for a special permit from some agency 60 miles away. But, yeah, we can burn. Just have to do some somersaults to get there.