Smutgrass ain't my friend

[Farmer Z]

Over the years our south Mississippi pastures have been overun with Smutgrass (some call it sage). Of course, it is a non-native grass that cows don't like to eat unless it's early Spring or they're starving. My 84 year old WWII vet Uncle calls it the "Revenge of the Japanese". I corrected him (he'd forgot about Toyota). Anyway, I understand that Dupont has a product called Velpar that is supposed to help eradicate this pest. Have any of y'all tried this? I understand that you spray it right over the Bermuda but it won't kill it...just turns it yellow but kills the Smutgrass?? Thanks.

 

[alabama]

Check but i think it has a 30 day grazing restriction and can only be used in the early summer.
I think a wiper with round-up would be better.

 

[mbdear]

There is a good discussion of Smutgrass control in Florida pastures at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/AA261.

They are talking about a 60 day non-grazing period.

Hope this helps.

Mike

 

[Jim62]

Don't do velpar. I used that on some mesquite a while back, and it'll kill ANYTHING within about 10 feet. I was spot treating with about a teaspoon per mesquite and wound up with bare ground all over. On the brighter side, it did kill the mesquite.

 

[Farmer Z]

Thanks for the info. I did a little study and that Velpar is somewhat scary (the Florida study said that it kills oak trees, for example). I think I'll take Alabama's advice and to some Roundup wiping.

 

[Avalon]

Check but i think it has a 30 day grazing restriction and can only be used in the early summer.
I think a wiper with round-up would be better.

What is a wiper? Same as a wick?

 

[Farmer Z]

I think a wiper and wick must be about the same thang. Maybe a wick has a more spongy type applicating apparatus. I'm going to have to buy a set up. Looking for something for a 4-wheeler to hold down costs.

 

[milesvb]

Don't do velpar. I used that on some mesquite a while back, and it'll kill ANYTHING within about 10 feet. I was spot treating with about a teaspoon per mesquite and wound up with bare ground all over. On the brighter side, it did kill the mesquite.

I'll second that for the liquid Velpar. It will kill the heck out of oak trees if applied uphill from them. Especially on clayey soils where Velpar shouldn't be used in the first place.

However, I'll add that I've used Power Pellets at 1/2 to 1 pellet per clump of smutgrass and gotten a good kill without bad side effects even though Power Pellets contain the same active ingredient as Velpar. This was done on sandy soil AWAY from desirable trees.

 

[Farmer Z]

Jim62 - How big of a grass spot will the pellet kill? This stuff sounds promising. Also, how far is far enough away from an oak tree...'bout 100 feet?

 

[milesvb]

Jim62 - How big of a grass spot will the pellet kill? This stuff sounds promising. Also, how far is far enough away from an oak tree...'bout 100 feet?

I ain't Jim but I'll answer anyway ;-) . It shouldn't kill much more than the clump itself. Make sure you stick the pellet in the center of the clump and the next rain will do the rest. As for the oak trees I would stay away at least 100' feet from the dripline but that's subjective as to whether you are uphill or down hill from it and the soil type. Hexazinone can travel under the soil with heavy rainfall. It can be some nasty stuff. I would be extremely carefull with it around trees. I prefer open sandy pastures. If in doubt, wick the clumps with Roundup and save the pellets for more open sites and always read the label before using any chemical.

 

[Farmer Z]

Milessvb - That's sounds like excellent advice. I had been thinking about this and won't get anywhere near the oaks. I reckon the best time to apply is Spring/Summer or can you get a kill with a Winter application??

 

[milesvb]

Milessvb - That's sounds like excellent advice. I had been thinking about this and won't get anywhere near the oaks. I reckon the best time to apply is Spring/Summer or can you get a kill with a Winter application??

I only use the pellets on yaupons in the winter. I would wait until it starts to green out this spring before using it on smutgrass.

 

[MrBilly]

We used Velpar on smuttgrass without all the bad things mentioned above. I think it is a matter of the concentration used. We spot sprayed it on only the clump and that was what was killed, nothing was killed surrounding the clump. I don't think Roundup works on this grass!

Billy

 

[jfont]

smutgrass comes from japan ? How so ?

 

[Farmer Z]

jfont - Please excuse my tardy response. I ain't been paying attention. My wife says its "oldtimers". Anyway, Smutgrass is one of several invasive species that originated in Asia. Others include, Chinaberry Trees, Privet Hedge, Cogon Grass, etc. Some species came over via shipments of goods from that region. Cogon Grass, for example, was used as packing material. Privet Hedge, Chinaberry and others were highly sought ornamentals back in the day. Of course, Kudzu was to help with erosion. Unfortunately, these plants thrive in the deep south. I think that is why Toyota (Canton) and Nissan (Tupelo) build cars here in the Magnolia State. It looks like home!!

 

[CCRanch]

I bought a wiper and roundup. I wiped 2--5 acre fields after my cattle had eaten the grass down and left the tall smutgrass. It looked like I killed all of it. It turned brown, and then in the middle of the smutgrass clump, it started turning green again about a month later. By the end of the summer, 95% of it grew back. I gave up with the wiper. I burned about 3 acres of a 12 acre field last January (on accident), but where it burned the smutgrass barely came back, and it was pretty bad there. I will be burning the whole 12 acres this winter. If this works, I am going to alternate burning pastures every year. I believe this will at least control it.

 

[luke strawwalker]

The best wiper for the money is the Spiedel Weed Wiper advertised the the back of the farm magazines. It's a 2 inch PVC pipe with 2 rows of holes drilled in it along the complete length of it, with a heavy canvas cloth tightly wrapped around it and a hose bib on one end (for vaccuum/drip control; the more you open the bib, the wetter the canvas gets and the quicker it drips, for heavy infestation applications; closing the bib down prevents dripping but makes the canvas a bit drier and recharges slower, for less severe infestation applications) and it also has a radiator drain cock on the bottom to drain it at the end of the day. They work really well, much better than rope wick type applicators (which I'm not sure you can even get anymore from what I've seen) and they're pretty cheap. They're sold by Quality Metal Works and I've also seen them advertise a pull type unit on bicycle wheels for pulling behind 4 wheelers. I mounted one on the front of the tractor and had real good luck with it on johnsongrass in cotton fields.

One thing I noticed about smutgrass... an easy and cheap way to get rid of it is to cut it as low as you possibly can with a hay mower. (Disk or drum mower). I had an elderly neighbor that wanted me to cut hay on a 40 acre patch for him, ate up with smutgrass, but did have a lot of good native and stuff too in it. I put new blades on the mower and took everything off about 1/2 inch above the ground, and the following year that field was nearly completely free of smutgrass, and what did come back started out as very small new crowns. A bushhog does nothing to smutgrass because it's pretty tough and the shredder blades just hack the top out of the crown about 2-3 inches high and it grows right back. Sharp blades on a hay mower will zip it off uniformly about 1/2 inch high if you set the machine right and the crowns can't seem to compete or survive very well after that. The hay was pretty decent and the cows eat it, smutgrass and all. The guy's brother told me that he had smutgrass tested one time and it was surprisingly high in protein and decent feed, if a bit low in palatability or digestibility. The cows ate that hay as good as any. Turn lemonde into lemons any way you can, I say... JMHO! OL JR

 

[Farmer Z]

Luke - Hey, I just found your post. That's some interesting info. I'm going try the low mowing thing in a little test plot...it sounds real promising. I don't bale my own hay so I'm going just use my lawn mower to low cut it on about a 100 x 100 spot to see what kind of results I get. If it looks good...I'll get it all done somehow. You know, I've always suspected that Smutgrass was high in protein. It's that palatibilty/digestion thing that is bothersome. Anyway, thanks again for the feedback!
Z

 

[D.R. Cattle]

Cows will actually eat it and get fat if you burn it or keep it cut low. I've worn out many a mower trying to cut it, burning it works pretty well if you can. Depends on how much money you're willing to spend. We did several hundred acres with Valpar. Killed the hell out of it, and the other grasses came back after suffering a hard blow. But the Valpar is so expensive, most people just kill it all and renovate the pasture or live with it.