Menu
Forums
New posts
Search forums
What's new
New posts
New media
New media comments
New profile posts
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Members
Current visitors
New profile posts
Search profile posts
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles and first posts only
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Search forums
Menu
Log in
Register
Forums
Cattle Boards
Grasses, Pastures & Hay
Renovating Weedy Crop Land into Pasture
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Help Support CattleToday:
Message
<blockquote data-quote="cowtrek" data-source="post: 289103" data-attributes="member: 2847"><p>Roundup of course has no soil activity-- it is bound up to the soil particles as soon as it hits the ground, so it will have no effect on the weed seed bank you have in the soil now. IF you were going to crop it you'd have to rent it to somebody who'd hit it with soil-applied herbicides that hopefully will have efficacy on the weed seed you're trying to eradicate. It's highly unlikely you'd find someone willing to rent the ground on a short term lease like that and spend the extra money on soil-applied herbicides (or extra roundup trips since it's going to be a mess anyway) and they might apply something with a long soil residual that won't be too friendly to the grasses and legumes you plan to plant later on. The other option would be to crop it yourself and choose the crop based on the best herbicide selection you can find to take out the weed seed bank. Neither of these is a very good plan IMHO. </p><p></p><p>The good thing about this situation is that, not having been cropped for a few years, any soil residuals from things like Trifluralin or Command or a good number of other long-lived soil herbicides should be gone. Carryover from some of these herbicides can really frustrate trying to get a good stand of forages established. That's why I'd be extra-careful in cropping it if you choose that route to make sure that nothing too 'hot' is put on the field that might take out the seed bank but then have a long carryover that would sicken or kill the legumes or grasses seeded later on. </p><p></p><p>I'd say your best bet would be to either 1) forego any production on it for a year and just keep it burned down with Roundup and other foliar herbicides as needed to kill sprouting annuals and perennials and established perennials, but this probably won't take out the entire seedbank by a longshot since most weed seed can lay dormant for a LONG time and doesn't necessarily sprout the first year (or the second or the third....) OR 2) put a few head on it to make use of the timothy and other grasses you said were out there while you focus on wicking the weeds or hitting them with more selective herbicides aimed specifically at the weeds you have, again watch about stuff like Grazon that might give you fits down the road when seeding legumes later on. That's what we're doing in converting our old cotton farm into pastureland. That way you're at least getting SOME production out of the place while you clean things up a bit, then later completely moldboard plow it to bury as many weed seed as deeply as you possibly can, disk it a couple times and then seed the grasses and legumes you intend to establish. Either way you'll probably have to deal with at least part of the seedbank because you just can't get it all no matter what you do. If the land is rough you'll probably do well moldboard plowing it as deep as you can to bury as much of the seedbank as deeply as you can. The old timers did this a lot and it can really reduce the amount of seed close enough to the surface to germinate. It'll give you a lot of loose soil to work with in disking it down for a seedbed for your grasses and legumes too and smooth the land out nicely for you to get a good start. Depending on where you are and the soil/climate and topography you might have to be careful and get something established pretty quickly afterwards, but it just might be your best bet. Just realize no matter what you do you're going to have to fight some weeds that get through even if you do EVERYTHING to get rid of them beforehand. Good luck! OL JR <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="cowtrek, post: 289103, member: 2847"] Roundup of course has no soil activity-- it is bound up to the soil particles as soon as it hits the ground, so it will have no effect on the weed seed bank you have in the soil now. IF you were going to crop it you'd have to rent it to somebody who'd hit it with soil-applied herbicides that hopefully will have efficacy on the weed seed you're trying to eradicate. It's highly unlikely you'd find someone willing to rent the ground on a short term lease like that and spend the extra money on soil-applied herbicides (or extra roundup trips since it's going to be a mess anyway) and they might apply something with a long soil residual that won't be too friendly to the grasses and legumes you plan to plant later on. The other option would be to crop it yourself and choose the crop based on the best herbicide selection you can find to take out the weed seed bank. Neither of these is a very good plan IMHO. The good thing about this situation is that, not having been cropped for a few years, any soil residuals from things like Trifluralin or Command or a good number of other long-lived soil herbicides should be gone. Carryover from some of these herbicides can really frustrate trying to get a good stand of forages established. That's why I'd be extra-careful in cropping it if you choose that route to make sure that nothing too 'hot' is put on the field that might take out the seed bank but then have a long carryover that would sicken or kill the legumes or grasses seeded later on. I'd say your best bet would be to either 1) forego any production on it for a year and just keep it burned down with Roundup and other foliar herbicides as needed to kill sprouting annuals and perennials and established perennials, but this probably won't take out the entire seedbank by a longshot since most weed seed can lay dormant for a LONG time and doesn't necessarily sprout the first year (or the second or the third....) OR 2) put a few head on it to make use of the timothy and other grasses you said were out there while you focus on wicking the weeds or hitting them with more selective herbicides aimed specifically at the weeds you have, again watch about stuff like Grazon that might give you fits down the road when seeding legumes later on. That's what we're doing in converting our old cotton farm into pastureland. That way you're at least getting SOME production out of the place while you clean things up a bit, then later completely moldboard plow it to bury as many weed seed as deeply as you possibly can, disk it a couple times and then seed the grasses and legumes you intend to establish. Either way you'll probably have to deal with at least part of the seedbank because you just can't get it all no matter what you do. If the land is rough you'll probably do well moldboard plowing it as deep as you can to bury as much of the seedbank as deeply as you can. The old timers did this a lot and it can really reduce the amount of seed close enough to the surface to germinate. It'll give you a lot of loose soil to work with in disking it down for a seedbed for your grasses and legumes too and smooth the land out nicely for you to get a good start. Depending on where you are and the soil/climate and topography you might have to be careful and get something established pretty quickly afterwards, but it just might be your best bet. Just realize no matter what you do you're going to have to fight some weeds that get through even if you do EVERYTHING to get rid of them beforehand. Good luck! OL JR :) [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Forums
Cattle Boards
Grasses, Pastures & Hay
Renovating Weedy Crop Land into Pasture
Top