Spray or clip?

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bball

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Early this May, planted 25 a.c. with a grass, clover, alfalfa hay mix. Went in a month late because of weather. Ground was sprayed with Roundup before no till drilling seed in. Walked some yesterday and the weeds are really popping. Would you spray and risk killing/crippling the legumes? Or mow and hopefully push weeds back and hope grass can out compete the weeds? Or any other ideas are welcomed?
 
Rajela":csnropm8 said:
How tall is the grass, clove, alfalfa mix...
It's been dry as a cork since planting so only 4" on grass..alfalfa and clover shoryer yet.
 
Mowing generally encourages growth. You mow your lawn every week and what happens? The grass and any weeds just grow back and probably faster than they already were. Mowing a pasture makes it look all neat and even but that's about it.
I'm pretty confident that I have never killed a single weed by mowing.
 
greybeard":316sqjth said:
Mowing generally encourages growth. You mow your lawn every week and what happens? The grass and any weeds just grow back and probably faster than they already were. Mowing a pasture makes it look all neat and even but that's about it.
I'm pretty confident that I have never killed a single weed by mowing.
I agree. With any luck it will prevent a weed from gowing to seed, but the way they grow, they will just regrow new seed heads.
Years ago we were over grown with star thistle. I mowed and bagged all of the star thistle and burned them. 2 weeks later they were back but for inches shorter, repeated the mowing and burning deal. To make a long story short after a couple of months the star thistle instead of growing upright had pretty much become a creeping vine that was below mowing height.
 
Looks like I'm spraying then. 1 oz per gallon Of H2O, squirt of DS and I'm off. Thanks for the inputs.
 
Your gonna have weeds to some degree until the grass gets established. And then your still gonna have some.

But it won't be the end of life as we know it. If u overgraze that pasture and keep the grass picked short you will always have much weeds.
 
dun":jkpgfqxs said:
greybeard":jkpgfqxs said:
Mowing generally encourages growth. You mow your lawn every week and what happens? The grass and any weeds just grow back and probably faster than they already were. Mowing a pasture makes it look all neat and even but that's about it.
I'm pretty confident that I have never killed a single weed by mowing.
I agree. With any luck it will prevent a weed from gowing to seed, but the way they grow, they will just regrow new seed heads.
Years ago we were over grown with star thistle. I mowed and bagged all of the star thistle and burned them. 2 weeks later they were back but for inches shorter, repeated the mowing and burning deal. To make a long story short after a couple of months the star thistle instead of growing upright had pretty much become a creeping vine that was below mowing height.

Just wanted tonsay thanks to you 2. I sprayed it. Killed the weeds...and most of the alfalfa(I was a little unhappy about it but had no other effective plan). Took a cutting and made nice grass hay. Well, it's coming back strong now with a great jump in clover and some alfalfa is coming on too. Im very pleased and just wanted to say thanks for steering me the right direction. You folks are the best.
 
Caustic Burno":28g1nn9a said:
B I never believed in cutting cow feed unless I was putting it in a bale.

The OP"s grass at 4" was probably too short to clip in this instance. But lets say for the sake of argument that it was a foot tall and he goes in and clips it down to 6 to 8 inches....what has he lost? With any moisture at all its going to grow right back within 2 or 3 weeks. What has he gained? lots of plant food has been added to the soil that you can't get out of a fertilize buggy. More robust root system because it hasn't been cut down to the ground. If he has fescue it will thicken up.
We seem to be conditioned to take and take from the soil but never give back.....except in the form of artificial, acidic "plant food" which is very expensive. :2cents:
 
Banjo":2dm31vie said:
Caustic Burno":2dm31vie said:
B I never believed in cutting cow feed unless I was putting it in a bale.

The OP"s grass at 4" was probably too short to clip in this instance. But lets say for the sake of argument that it was a foot tall and he goes in and clips it down to 6 to 8 inches....what has he lost? With any moisture at all its going to grow right back within 2 or 3 weeks. What has he gained? lots of plant food has been added to the soil that you can't get out of a fertilize buggy. More robust root system because it hasn't been cut down to the ground. If he has fescue it will thicken up.
We seem to be conditioned to take and take from the soil but never give back.....except in the form of artificial, acidic "plant food" which is very expensive. :2cents:


Well I am not cutting pasture with a tractor unless it's to bale. I will graze it down. Standing grass is stockpiled hay. I will put my pastures up against anyone in my area.
Do I fertilize yes you have to put back my pastures are on a three year rotation being fertilized every third year.
 
My stockpiled grass isn't hay it's junk grass and the cows won't eat it without supplementation, and barely then. I tried stockpiling grass, and fertilized bahia and bermuda doesn't work in these parts. There's a few others on here that have tried with the same results as me. If we could grow fescue in the south we'd have the bull by the horns.
 
True Grit Farms":rbvinsd6 said:
My stockpiled grass isn't hay it's junk grass and the cows won't eat it without supplementation, and barely then. I tried stockpiling grass, and fertilized bahia and bermuda doesn't work in these parts. There's a few others on here that have tried with the same results as me. If we could grow fescue in the south we'd have the bull by the horns.

Your pasture should be the same quality as your hay IMO
I baled my pastures for years if it will support a cow without supplemention in pasture it will do so standing.
I do have lots of crab grass now as well.
Took several years for tha Red River to get a hold and it is off and running.
 
Caustic Burno":1c30jaqn said:
True Grit Farms":1c30jaqn said:
My stockpiled grass isn't hay it's junk grass and the cows won't eat it without supplementation, and barely then. I tried stockpiling grass, and fertilized bahia and bermuda doesn't work in these parts. There's a few others on here that have tried with the same results as me. If we could grow fescue in the south we'd have the bull by the horns.

Your pasture should be the same quality as your hay IMO
I baled my pastures for years if it will support a cow without supplemention in pasture it will do so standing.
I do have lots of crab grass now as well.
Took several years for tha Red River to get a hold and it is off and running.

I mow my pastures because where the grass is high the cows refuse to eat it, unless I starve them or supplement them. I'll give you this, crab grass does stockpile better than bahia or bermuda grasses. I've been to no less than 10 different hay and pasture management only classes to no avail. I've wrote and asked many in the know at UGA, and UF why they won't develope a heat tolerant fescue instead of working only with the high bred bermuda, bahia grasses? The best I can tell the universities are in cahoots with the fertilizer and feed companies. I wish someone with better people skills like Jogeephus would get involved in the fescue deal, I feel we really need that grass available to us in the south.
 
When you say stockpiled grass or hay.... your not talkin about winter stockpile, right?
 
I do believe that organic matter is an important part of soil substructure. Right or wrong, I will prefer to clip vs chemical solutions , if possible .
 
snoopdog":1w51ngmy said:
I do believe that organic matter is an important part of soil substructure. Right or wrong, I will prefer to clip vs chemical solutions , if possible .

We agree it goes in the front of the cow and comes out the back.
 

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