Has anyone had any success in getting rid of cheat grass? If so, how? I found an article today (it was written by the makers of Plateau) about Plateau and eliminating cheat grass, the article said that Plateau was 'pretty specific' for cheat grass and spurge, but would not harm perennial grasses. Anyone have any experience with this?
Cheat Grass
- Thread starter msscamp
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It was what was recommended for WSG plantings but as I understand from several folks in the herbicide world, it was being used on cotton as a defoliant so it was taken off of the market. Don;t know if that's true, but it's not listed as being available any longer.
dun
dun
El_Putzo
Well-known member
We have 1 field that used to be plagued by the stuff. The field is usually in timothy but after a 3-5 yrs the cheat seemed to take it over. Last time we reseeded timothy, 3 yrs ago, instead of just waiting til june and cutting the timothy and then plowing, we cut when the cheat was just starting to head(May 15th or so) being sure to get it cut before any of the cheat went to seed. We then went ahead and plowed that fall and reseeded with timothy and wheat for a cover. Ever since we can't find any back (crossing my fingers). IMO the problem with erradicating the cheat is that it matures so early that if there is some in your field and it matures about June 1, but you don't cut your field til June 15th or so (like us), basically when you run your haybine through, you've reseed the cheat for next year.
rgv
Well-known member
Anyone have a picture of cheat grass?
I planted a small alfalfa field last fall, came up great.
Thought I had the field in good shape. This spring I had all this grass looking stuff come up with the alfalfa. After the first cutting I seen no more of the stuff.
Is there any value in the stuff as hay?
I planted a small alfalfa field last fall, came up great.
Thought I had the field in good shape. This spring I had all this grass looking stuff come up with the alfalfa. After the first cutting I seen no more of the stuff.
Is there any value in the stuff as hay?
Cheat is a cool season grass in Alabama. So in the spring before summer grass green up in hay fields we spray roundup to kill cool season weeds such as henbit, cheat, and other things. I have never had trouble with cheat in the pasture as the cows love it.
Different areas of the country call different things cheatgrass. The stuff that's called that around here is a totally different thing then in the desert foothills. Would imagine it's different in NY and CN too. We've generally called any kind of useless short grass with a short growing season and not much leaf "cheat".
I know there is an actual grass called western cheat and maybe eastern, southern, northern, whatever, too.
dun
I know there is an actual grass called western cheat and maybe eastern, southern, northern, whatever, too.
dun
El_Putzo
Well-known member
MikeC":1r9vrrco said:
The stuff we call cheat looks very similar what's on this website. In our area, the cows love it until it begins to make a seed then they won't touch it. It grows early in the spring and is usually ripe about June 1 after which it dries up and goes dormant. Not sure if it shoots new leaves in the fall, since the foliage looks so similar to fescue. Guess I've never really looked at it in the fall. We've never had any tested, but the year we cut the timothy field when it was about 60% cheat, the cows loved it and did fine on it. I would guess it has about the same nutritional value as early cut fescue. JMO
