Help please?Pig weed in newly seeded field.

[hillsdown]

We reseeded 25 acres this year.We killed everything first worked the soil really well and seeded to an alfalfa mixture with oats so we will get a cut this year.Last week the oats were coming very nicely and the alfalfa was about 3 inches tall.This week the whole 25 acres is covered in PIG WEED.The whole parcel is completely weeds.

Is there anything to spray that will kill pig weed and and not my oats and alfalfa hay mixture?I really don't want to lose everything as it has already cost us a lot of money to seed and fertilize.Thanks to all.

 

[dun]

Congrattulations, you've been given the gift. Pigweed has a soil bank tha is unbelievable, the more you work the soil it seems the more seed you bring to the service.
We had aa WSG field that did the same thing. Before it went to seed I cut the whole thing as if for hay and baled it. It was 99% pigweed. The neighbor took it to dump in some erosion gulleys, the cows found it and thought it was candy. The cleaned up every bit of it and now he has a luxurious pigweed pasture. The good part is tha I have only a couple of plants here and there in the WSG. The dairy had the same problem in his alfalfa except the weed was rag weed. He baled it and hauled the stuff out into the woods and dumped it. This year he has aa pretty fair stand of alfalfa and grass.
Long story even longer. Cut it, bale it and get rid of it before it goes to seed.

 

[hillsdown]

Thats what I had heard too that the pig weed is dormant in the soil and when you turn the soil and kill everything else it is a perfect breeding ground.So there is no spray that will work like 2,4-DB.Or will that kill the oats and alfalfa also.If we do cut and bale it does it matter if it is rounds or should it be small squares as it packs everything together tighter and their is less change of seeds being left behind?Thank you.

 

[Bez>]

Thats what I had heard too that the pig weed is dormant in the soil and when you turn the soil and kill everything else it is a perfect breeding ground.So there is no spray that will work like 2,4-DB.Or will that kill the oats and alfalfa also.If we do cut and bale it does it matter if it is rounds or should it be small squares as it packs everything together tighter and their is less change of seeds being left behind?Thank you.

There will not be any seeds at all of you cut and bale before it heads out - so who cares what type of bale?

Talk to your local ag rep yet - he might have some idea - broad leaf killer that does not harm Alfalfa? I never spray for that type of thing so I could not suggest without research first.

As well, we baled ours and yes the cows ate it - go figure. But not until it was more than a year old.

Regards

Bez>

 

[hillsdown]

So which should we do; bale it and get rid of it or bale it and feed it?We also spread the cleaned up corral with wasted feed and manure on the hay field so if is is fed and some is wasted(like always cows are messy when they eat) ,when we spread the manure will we be making the situation worse?Thanks.

 

[Bez>]

So which should we do; bale it and get rid of it or bale it and feed it?We also spread the cleaned up corral with wasted feed and manure on the hay field so if is is fed and some is wasted(like always cows are messy when they eat) ,when we spread the manure will we be making the situation worse?Thanks.

Manure always brings weeds.

We did not feed our cows this stuff - they ate it from a bale pile that was two years or more older. We just let them have it.

I suggest you ask your local fert seed and spray guy - he is far better for your situation than us folks here.

If you decide to not do that - then I would still definitely cut early and bale - then decide what to do with the bales laster.

Bez>

 

[hillsdown]

The Alberta Agriculture people said to cut it and bale it before it goes into seed but they also said that small squares packs it better.Like always I am using this board as a kind of second opinion.Thanks for all of the responses.

 

[Bez>]

The Alberta Agriculture people said to cut it and bale it before it goes into seed but they also said that small squares packs it better.Like always I am using this board as a kind of second opinion.Thanks for all of the responses.

Hillsdown - if it has not headed out - there is no seed.

So I guess it depends on when you cut it.

Go early and big bales.

Or, perhaps brush hog it and leave it. Anything underneath will still come up. If you are going to cut it - why not just pass over it once instead of several times?

Regards

Bez>

 

[alabama]

In Alabama it seems like pigweed comes up with seed on it. It only takes a plant about 3 weeks old to have seed. So in the south cutting and hauling is not an option unless you want to cut once a week whitch will kill your crop.
I do have a susgestion though. I tried a herbicide several years back to kill weeds in the pasture and not hurt my clover. Well the hurbicide I used was for Alfalfa and I was hoping it would work in clover but the experment failed.
It may work for you since it is labled for alfalfa. So read the lable.
It is called "Prusuit DG" and is made by American Cyanamid Company for use in Alfalfa, field corn, soybeans and peanuts.

 

[mnmtranching]

Another thing about Red Root Pigweed. It needs a soil temp of 60+ degrees to germinate so it lays there no matter how much you work the soil. When temp and moisture is right it's everywhere and grows very fast.

I have a field of millet thats solid now about 4 ft high pigweed. Guess I'll just bale it up and feed it. When I feed it I'll put it in rings in places I will plant RR corn next year. Roundup with a little atrazine kills it dead 100% from what I've seen.

For my millet.
Next year I'm going to plow the field, and work it, and pack the surface. What till the pigweed germinates real good, then rework just the surface on a hot dry day. Then plant millet.

Think that will work?

Oh yah, I have another patch of 5 acrres i put some cow/calves in. They really like it. And seems to be good pasture, just keeps sprouting back.

 

[dun]

Depending on when you cut and bale it, if it's started to even flower, don;t rake it too much. I know it (probably) doesn;t but it almost seems that if it has started to flower it already has viable seed packed away somewhere. Over raking just loosens and spreads them.
My choice unless I had a neighbor willing to haul it off would be to burn it.

 

[hillsdown]

Thanks everyone it sounds like this is a global problem.I am going to check out the Pursuit w DG ,but do you think if I get it bailed that someone would want it free for feed.Like someone like mnm that feeds on a crop area that won't have to worry about it becoming an infestations problem?

 

[dun]

if I get it bailed that someone would want it free for feed.Like someone like mnm that feeds on a crop area that won't have to worry about it becoming an infestations problem?

You won;t know until you ask/check around.

 

[Jogeephus]

if I get it bailed that someone would want it free for feed.Like someone like mnm that feeds on a crop area that won't have to worry about it becoming an infestations problem?

You won;t know until you ask/check around.

I'm pretty sure I bought my pigweed "gift" several years ago from a hay producer. I usually feed hay in one location so it is easy enough to treat. (I just always forget to)

 

[MikeC]

The trick to keeping pigweed at bay is to spray it with 2-4-D when it's young.

Might have to spray 3 times a year if it gets bad but then only once a year will take care of it.

 

[ga. prime]

Like Jogee, I always get a massive jungle of pig weed(spiny, non-spiny, smooth, round-up resistant, etc.) in my hay feeding area. A wiff of 2-4D+Banvel will kill it graveyard dead(in minutes you can watch it wilt) and won't harm the grass. I know el-zippo about alfalfa, so this may or may not be an option for you.

 

[cowtrek]

I read somewhere awhile back that pigweed is actually considered a crop in some parts of the world. The seed is ground to make flour and the plant is pretty nutritious as a livestock feed. So what's the big deal??

I had a lot of pigweed come in solid when I quit row cropping and turned the place into pasture, and the cows have eaten it all now. It's not their favorite but they will clean it up given time. Same for the giant ragweed. We have quite a bit over the fenceline and the cattle lean through the fence to get at it.

Certainly don't burn or toss the hay just on account of the pigweed! The cattle will eat what they want of it or pick the grass and clover out of it. I'd lay odds they'll eat it just fine. I had one meadow that hadn't been baled for several years that was sown up with blackberry vines but had a good stand of Dallisgrass in it. It had so many blackberry vines that I nearly just bushhogged it but I said, "nah, I'll bale it since I'll burn just as much diesel to shred it but won't have anything to show for it." Figured it would be trash hay but when I unrolled it the cattle picked through it and ate probably 80% of it. All that was left were the largest vine canes in a scattered swath by the barn that rotted away that winter. I baled it twice that summer and killed nearly every vine in the field.

There is an interesting series article in the "Stockman Grass Farmer" magazine in the past few months about training cattle to eat weeds. Check it out at http://www.stockmangrassfarmer.com if you can. Take it easy! OL JR

 

[mnmtranching]

It's been so dry the last few years in this area that our cool season grasses grow a little in the Spring then again if it rains in Sept. We get a couple half inch showers in July and all these weeds green up, cows eat it to the dirt. Keeps us going. :shock:
Sure I would love the chance to get some free baled up weeds.

 

[dun]

There are 2 problems with pigweed. #1 it's toxic to cattle and there doesn;t seem to be anything that specifies how much is needed for toxicity. I understad that mules love the stuff and will clean a filed. Off course then you end up with well fertilized seeds. I read somewhere that each plant can produce 115,000 seeds, which leads us to #2. #2 It's so invasive to will take over a field.

 

[cowtrek]

Well there are lots of things that are poisonous if too much is ingested. Even almonds have cyanide in them! I haven't had any problems with it and I have a suspicion that the cattle would quit eating them if it made them sick, which at some level it would. I've never heard of pigweed being poisonous though. One publication was advocating growing them as an alternative grain crop for livestock

The second thing is that true, pigweed does make millions of seeds. I've seen pigweeds in cotton fields 6 feet high with seeds so thick you couldn't beleive it. In bad years we'd have pigweed seeds piled on top of the picker units a few inches deep after picking a trashy field. If there are even a few pigweeds around, there are unquestionably millions of pigweed seed in the ground already so I wouldn't worry about it too much. I've heard of cleaning up fields of large seeded weeds culturally (by opening the sieves and cutting down the chaffer air on a combine to haul off cockleburr seed with soybeans during combining) and cutting them before they go to seed, but with small seeded prolific weeds like pigweed and ragweed it's of dubious use. Besides, I heard in an extension program one time that pigweed seed can stay viable in the soil for around 20 years or so.

I sure wouldn't throw away the kind of investment that has been made in this hay crop over a few pigweeds! But that's not up to me. Like someone else said, I'd take it in a heartbeat! OL JR