Foxtail problems

[randiliana]

Foxtail Barley is a big problem in our area. Most of our hay/pastures around our place are infested with the stuff. The biggest problem is how to kill it. Suggestions we have had are:
1. Burn it
2. Spray with glyphosate (in alfalfa)
3. Spray with Kerb (in grass/alfalfa)
4. Break it up and work it for a couple years

We have tried burning, and it may have helped, but on 1/4 section that is pretty impractical. Roundup sounds reasonably good, but we cannot use it where we have grass unless we want to sacrafice the grass. Kerb sounds like the way to go but it costs about $30/acre. We would prefer not to have to break the land up unless it was a last ditch effort.

I'm just wondering what others have done to control the stuff, and if anyone has used Kerb, how well did it work??

 

[certherfbeef]

We are probably not talking about the same stuff but...we had a field over run with foxtail. Added alot of lime that next year and they were fewer and farther between.

May have been accident but it seemed to work.
Good luck to ya.

 

[randiliana]

We are probably not talking about the same stuff but...we had a field over run with foxtail. Added alot of lime that next year and they were fewer and farther between.

May have been accident but it seemed to work.
Good luck to ya.

Here is a couple links to identification. If you don't have this stuff, be glad!!

http://www.agr.gov.sk.ca/DOCS/crops/int ... oxtail.asp

http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/cropprot/weedguid/foxtailb.htm

 

[SaskHerf]

Not sure how bad your problem is but i've seen some bad ones... If it is really bad the only choice i think you have is to spray it with glyphosate(Roundup) and go at a good rate like a 1.5 ltr /acre rate.... I find the best time to kill it is early in the spring. Had neighbours who claimed that if a person didn't graze the feild at all, then the grass would naturally choke it out..

 

[3MR]

Had neighbours who claimed that if a person didn't graze the feild at all, then the grass would naturally choke it out..

I have heard that about other things, but in my expeinnce it is almost never true.

 

[SaskHerf]

foxtail Barley isn't a very competetive plant it groes in low spots where the crop drowndes out or on pastures with poor or overgrazed grass sometimes, basically anywhere where there is no competition.

 

[randiliana]

foxtail Barley isn't a very competetive plant it groes in low spots where the crop drowndes out or on pastures with poor or overgrazed grass sometimes, basically anywhere where there is no competition.

I have to disagree with this one. A lot of our land is poorer quality granted, but the places where we see the worse foxtail infestations are in decent hay stands (not really good ones). Leaving the land alone and not grazing/cutting in my opinion doesn't work. Besides then you are completely losing any monetary gain from that land for probably a long length of time. Better to spray or work it and then reseed it a year later.....

 

[msscamp]

foxtail Barley isn't a very competetive plant it groes in low spots where the crop drowndes out or on pastures with poor or overgrazed grass sometimes, basically anywhere where there is no competition.

I beg to differ, foxtail is a very competetive plant that will choke out other grasses if allowed to grow and reproduce.

 

[msscamp]

Foxtail Barley is a big problem in our area. Most of our hay/pastures around our place are infested with the stuff. The biggest problem is how to kill it. Suggestions we have had are:
1. Burn it
2. Spray with glyphosate (in alfalfa)
3. Spray with Kerb (in grass/alfalfa)
4. Break it up and work it for a couple years

We have tried burning, and it may have helped, but on 1/4 section that is pretty impractical. Roundup sounds reasonably good, but we cannot use it where we have grass unless we want to sacrafice the grass. Kerb sounds like the way to go but it costs about $30/acre. We would prefer not to have to break the land up unless it was a last ditch effort.

I'm just wondering what others have done to control the stuff, and if anyone has used Kerb, how well did it work??

Randi, what I do is spot spray with 2 oz/gallon of glyphosate with the sprayer set on a very coarse spray to avoid hitting other desirable grasses as much as possible. I also spray slightly outside the base of the grass bunch to hedge my bet. It will take out a small percentage of the desirable grasses on occasion - depending on where the foxtail came up - but it is well worth it to be rid of the foxtail. Do you know where your foxtail came from?

 

[randiliana]

Randi, what I do is spot spray with 2 oz/gallon of glyphosate with the sprayer set on a very coarse spray to avoid hitting other desirable grasses as much as possible. I also spray slightly outside the base of the grass bunch to hedge my bet. It will take out a small percentage of the desirable grasses on occasion - depending on where the foxtail came up - but it is well worth it to be rid of the foxtail. Do you know where your foxtail came from?

Foxtail is a pretty common weed in this area. There is a lot of no-till farming here, and that seems to encourage it. The land we have was no-till farmland until about 5 years ago when we took over. The problem with spot spraying is that some of the spots are over 60 acres in size. Thanks for your suggestion, it will likely come in handy, when we decide what we are going to do.

 

[3MR]

Randi, what I do is spot spray with 2 oz/gallon of glyphosate with the sprayer set on a very coarse spray to avoid hitting other desirable grasses as much as possible. I also spray slightly outside the base of the grass bunch to hedge my bet. It will take out a small percentage of the desirable grasses on occasion - depending on where the foxtail came up - but it is well worth it to be rid of the foxtail. Do you know where your foxtail came from?

Foxtail is a pretty common weed in this area. There is a lot of no-till farming here, and that seems to encourage it. The land we have was no-till farmland until about 5 years ago when we took over. The problem with spot spraying is that some of the spots are over 60 acres in size. Thanks for your suggestion, it will likely come in handy, when we decide what we are going to do.

Hmm, I would think no-till would help control rather than encourage it being you arent turning up new seeds each year.

 

[randiliana]

Hmm, I would think no-till would help control rather than encourage it being you arent turning up new seeds each year.

I would have thought that too, but there have been several farmers let go of rented land here this year, and the weeds that are coming in that stuff is unbelievable!! There is every weed that we have heard of in the area, and then some. The chemicals sure don't seem to have affected the number of viable weed seeds, negatively anyway.

 

[msscamp]

Randi, what I do is spot spray with 2 oz/gallon of glyphosate with the sprayer set on a very coarse spray to avoid hitting other desirable grasses as much as possible. I also spray slightly outside the base of the grass bunch to hedge my bet. It will take out a small percentage of the desirable grasses on occasion - depending on where the foxtail came up - but it is well worth it to be rid of the foxtail. Do you know where your foxtail came from?

Foxtail is a pretty common weed in this area. There is a lot of no-till farming here, and that seems to encourage it. The land we have was no-till farmland until about 5 years ago when we took over. The problem with spot spraying is that some of the spots are over 60 acres in size. Thanks for your suggestion, it will likely come in handy, when we decide what we are going to do.

Hmm, I would think no-till would help control rather than encourage it being you arent turning up new seeds each year.

Foxtail does not need the land to be tilled in order to grow - in fact, the opposite seems to be true. We got ours from seeds falling into the irrigation ditches and hay containing foxtail brought in by people boarding their horses here - I know that is where it came from because the original sites were only where the irrigation water ran and around the horse runs. Once here, there were a few places that must have been to small to notice, they went to seed and the wind spread them around. None of our foxtail is in tilled fields - it is always on the periphery, which leads me to believe that it cannot sustain being plowed under.

 

[msscamp]

Randi, what I do is spot spray with 2 oz/gallon of glyphosate with the sprayer set on a very coarse spray to avoid hitting other desirable grasses as much as possible. I also spray slightly outside the base of the grass bunch to hedge my bet. It will take out a small percentage of the desirable grasses on occasion - depending on where the foxtail came up - but it is well worth it to be rid of the foxtail. Do you know where your foxtail came from?

The problem with spot spraying is that some of the spots are over 60 acres in size. Thanks for your suggestion, it will likely come in handy, when we decide what we are going to do.

I hear you! I'm spot spraying for Foxtail on approx 360 acres - but there is nothing else I can do to get rid of it. Foxtail is a variety of grass, and anything that will kill an undesirable grass will also kill the desirable grasses.

 

[cowsense]

FOXTAIL is one of the worst weeds that we are facing at present and it is everywhere in our province! I agree that no-til farming practices have allowed it to spread like wildfire; a part litre burnoff of glyphosphate for pre-seed weed control just stunts the plant and allows it to set seed. The real problem with foxtail is the large amount of seed that is present on the land makes it tough to plant desirable species of grass. It just doesn't seem to matter whether you use a hefty glyphosate rate, tillage or a combination of both you will eventually have a large reinfestation of foxtail. Kerb is expensive @ $30.00/acre ; recquires a large water spray volume (30-40 gal./acre) and needs proper conditions to work. It will injure your grass and I've seen foxtail coming back within 2 years of application. We've had limited success with extremely heavy forced grazing prior to heading; it does thin it out fairly well but you may be decreasing your herds performance level.It's interesting that there is little to no foxtail in good stands of native grass; perhaps a healthy mixed stand of grass will eventually choke out foxtail! United Agricore was promoting a new CWG-quackgrass hybrid that is very agressive and is supposed to be able to choke out foxtail;but seed is very expensive and I haven't found any yet!

 

[randiliana]

FOXTAIL is one of the worst weeds that we are facing at present and it is everywhere in our province! I agree that no-til farming practices have allowed it to spread like wildfire; a part litre burnoff of glyphosphate for pre-seed weed control just stunts the plant and allows it to set seed. The real problem with foxtail is the large amount of seed that is present on the land makes it tough to plant desirable species of grass. It just doesn't seem to matter whether you use a hefty glyphosate rate, tillage or a combination of both you will eventually have a large reinfestation of foxtail. Kerb is expensive @ $30.00/acre ; recquires a large water spray volume (30-40 gal./acre) and needs proper conditions to work. It will injure your grass and I've seen foxtail coming back within 2 years of application. We've had limited success with extremely heavy forced grazing prior to heading; it does thin it out fairly well but you may be decreasing your herds performance level.It's interesting that there is little to no foxtail in good stands of native grass; perhaps a healthy mixed stand of grass will eventually choke out foxtail! United Agricore was promoting a new CWG-quackgrass hybrid that is very agressive and is supposed to be able to choke out foxtail;but seed is very expensive and I haven't found any yet!

Thank you for your comments!!! What you have said about Kerb, has validated what I thought about it, but I was waiting for someone that knew more than I about it.

We are considering breaking some of the land back up. But first I think we may try to spray it with glyphosate this fall. If it completely kills off the grass we are no further behind than we would have been with breaking it or, I think, with using Kerb, as from what I have read about it Crested Wheat and Brome have a low tolerance for it. We have tried burning, and that seemed to help, but with the dry conditions it is not an option. We have Alfalfa, Crested Wheat and Meadow Brome seeded.

As for the Quackgrass, I have been telling my hubby to let it and the foxtail fight it out, at least the cattle seem to like eating the Quackgrass, and it will grow in some of the more saline areas too.