Keeping Crabgrass Out of Bermuda Field

[u4411clb]

I planted wrangler bermuda grass about a month ago on a prepared seedbed. It is starting to come up but there is allot of crab grass coming up with it. I did not put down any nitrogen yet and am debating should I go ahead and put the nitrogen out now and what can I do to get rid of the crab grass or at least give the bermuda the best chance to succeed and take over. Thanks in advance for the advice.

 

[NWMoAngus]

In the midwest we might apply a dinitroaniline herbicide, such as Treflan or Prowl to control annual grass weeds like crabgrass. I have no idea how it might affect Bermuda grass

 

[Brute 23]

The contract spraying people can do it while they put out fertilizer. It's pretty reasonable.

 

[Bigfoot]

I had the same problem. Jed suggested I over graze it, and it worked.

 

[M5farm]

Cows love crabgrass . Graze it.

 

[cowgirl8]

The crabgrass will be temporary because you tilled. You did till right, you said prepared...Crabgrass likes bare ground thats tilled. Graze it and you wont have it next year, it cant compete with bermuda...

 

[u4411clb]

Yes I turned and disked and sprayed before I planted. Crab grass is really the only weed problem I am having. Thanks to everyone for the advice. To the people who are suggesting spraying will the fact the Bermuda is only a month old be problem. Thanks again. I may spray and also overgraze.

 

[jedstivers]

The crabgrass is better than the Bermuda. We plant crabgrass and try to keep the Bermuda out but can't always. As long as you don't work it the crabgrass will go away after a few years.

 

[JSCATTLE]

Crab grass hay looks bad but will be better hay than the Bermuda . I don't spray mine the cows love it . And since I don't pander to horse hay buying people it doesn't bother me .

 

[jedstivers]

Crab grass hay looks bad but will be better hay than the Bermuda . I don't spray mine the cows love it . And since I don't pander to horse hay buying people it doesn't bother me .

Crabgrass hay is better horse hay than Bermuda but horse people don't read much I don't guess and you sure cant tell them anything so its best not to worry about them. It's also a good way not to have to fool with them.

 

[Bigfoot]

I've been nursing some crabgrass for a few years now. It reseeds itself, and makes some of the prettiest square baled hay you ever saw. I've never understood why it doesn't catch on with people. I tried the red river variety. It either didn't germinate, or was identical what I already had.

 

[Chuckie]

You don't need to spray your bermuda if it is less than one year established in the ground. It could kill it as it will stunt it badly if not well established. I would be very careful not to over stock the pasture at this point, and if anything, just keep it mowed. When you do get ready to spray it if you have a lot of weeds other than crab grass, which is a very good grass for cattle, I would use Pastora Herbicide. It will kill the weeds in your pasture and not kill the bermuda. It will stunt the bermuday lightly, but it recovers quickly because the roots run so deeply in the ground. We had a bad infestation of Johnson Grass and sprayed it last fall before it frosted. I was tired of rope wicking it just to have it come back each year. There is only a couple of clumps and I am going to hit those with a hand sprayer of Pastora. It does kill it.

I have crab grass that comes up where I have hay bales over the winter. The cattle love it. Crab grass is a great forage for cattle. I would not spray it. Read the entire article after reading below. Take advantage of the crab grass while you have it. I have often thought about the Red River Crab grass, and only have known one man that planted it. But he didn't know what he was doing. He was bragging on how high it grew and was going to cut it for hay. It had gone way past the highest nutrient level for his cattle, and he wasn't grazing it. Like cowgirl8 said, the bermuda will take over the crabgrass eventually.

I just checked on a bag of regular crab grass seed-50 lbs, $459 and the lowest seeding rate was 4 lbs to the acre. Red River crab grass was $479 for 50 lbs.

http://hayandforage.com/hay/grasses/0501-flexible-annual-forage

 

[JSCATTLE]

Crab grass hay looks bad but will be better hay than the Bermuda . I don't spray mine the cows love it . And since I don't pander to horse hay buying people it doesn't bother me .

Crabgrass hay is better horse hay than Bermuda but horse people don't read much I don't guess and you sure cant tell them anything so its best not to worry about them. It's also a good way not to have to fool with them.

It's funny when they stop by and start with the my horse can't eat this or that . But you drive by their horse pasture and the horses are eating a pasture full of weeds . I feed my horses cow hay. Out of the same stack my cows eat from . If they turn their nose up to it they don't eat.

 

[cowgirl8]

Crab grass hay looks bad but will be better hay than the Bermuda . I don't spray mine the cows love it . And since I don't pander to horse hay buying people it doesn't bother me .

Crabgrass hay is better horse hay than Bermuda but horse people don't read much I don't guess and you sure cant tell them anything so its best not to worry about them. It's also a good way not to have to fool with them.

It's funny when they stop by and start with the my horse can't eat this or that . But you drive by their horse pasture and the horses are eating a pasture full of weeds . I feed my horses cow hay. Out of the same stack my cows eat from . If they turn their nose up to it they don't eat.

There are actually horse people who say the hay has to sit for a while before you can feed....it needs to cure. I believe the people who baled it cured it before they get it. lol Our horses always eat the same stuff rolled for the cows, although, we only feed good hay to our livestock. I've seen some of the garbage some people bale and call hay from fields where they got for free for cleaning up the vines, thistles and locus trees...

 

[Bigfoot]

Cowgirl,
You'd better let your hay go thru its sweat before you feed it to a horse. If not, you'll have some dead horses.

 

[cowgirl8]

Cowgirl,
You'd better let your hay go thru its sweat before you feed it to a horse. If not, you'll have some dead horses.

I guess my horses are lucky to be alive...not only do i not do it, i have no idea what it is....lol Feed it right out of the hayfield. Although, they dont get much hay right out of the hayfield since we dont feed hay until around december. But, i know we have fed it out of the field in the spring...Maybe its different to a horse who is stall kept. I have one horse who founders on spring grasses and lives on hay in the lot, she gets bales of the field. Also when i'm ready to set her out i just let her out. No acclimating her to grass again.
So what is suppose to kill them if you dont let it go through its sweat? What kind of grass? Is it all hay? Does it depend on how it was baled?

 

[Bigfoot]

Going thru a sweat is when the hay continues to heat up in the bale. All hay does it, as far as I know. It may not if you waited an extremely long time to bale it.

 

[Bigfoot]

Old people used to tell me, it would cause acidosis. They were also the same people that told me if I worked real hard, I'd get ahead in life.

 

[cowgirl8]

Going thru a sweat is when the hay continues to heat up in the bale. All hay does it, as far as I know. It may not if you waited an extremely long time to bale it.

Probably going to happen more with hay baled too green. We dont buy hay so we know it was baled right, never had a problem feeding it right out of the field to horses..Going on over 48 years...Husband grew up at a Dallas area stables, he baled square hay since he was big enough to run a tractor and worked with a horse vet until we got married..When he gets home i'll ask him but i bet he'll giggle a little.

 

[Bigfoot]

Going thru a sweat is when the hay continues to heat up in the bale. All hay does it, as far as I know. It may not if you waited an extremely long time to bale it.

Probably going to happen more with hay baled too green. We dont buy hay so we know it was baled right, never had a problem feeding it right out of the field to horses..Going on over 48 years...Husband grew up at a Dallas area stables, he baled square hay since he was big enough to run a tractor and worked with a horse vet until we got married..When he gets home i'll ask him but i bet he'll giggle a little.

He can laugh all he wants, and feed all the hot hay he wants.