Chuckie,
Yes the butter cups were already flowering when i sprayed everytime. And the guy next to me, well his cows looked to all be in good body condition to me. And from what i have read about butter cups they are suppose to cause cows to get some types of blisters in their mouths if they eat enough of them. Maybe if they eat them when they are really small right before they start flowering they are not as toxic ?
I have herd other farmers say that cows will eat them but you have to brush hog them first. And one guy told me they even made descent hay if you let them dry out right before baleing them. I really dont know about none of this wether or not what they are saying is true.
But you know i got to thinking about something else. My hay meadow joins the 20 acre meadow next to it.( It was a 40 acre that was divided and then sold) Ok then their is a 40 acre hay meadow right behind both of our hay meadows and it has alot of butter cups on it. They always use it to graze cattle on. I dont know of them ever spraying it or limeing it or anything else. Then on the opposite side of my 20 their is a 40 acre hay meadow and there are some big, big trees growing on the property line with alot of cedars. And this 40 acre meadow does not have any butter cups at all. They use it to cut hay off of. They dont lime or fertlize it. So i dont know what the ph would be like on it.
But i kind of wonder know if maybe the seeds from the butter cups might not be scattered from one feild to the next by the wind ?
dun,
You could have went all night and not told me that horse nettle is a summer weed and not a spring weed.
I was hoping i had seen the last of them. Maybe this screwed up cool weather will keep them from coming up this year.
I know that i had to spray twice last year because the first time i sprayed they were not in blooming and i was told by the extension agent that i needed to wait until they had the purple blooms on them before spraying them to do anygood.
You know i did not have any trouble with them until i took out some terraces. I must have got into a seed bed of the things. Because they were scattered all over the pasture.
I had six terraces on the 20 acre feild that i tore out and built a new pond ( about a 1/4 acre pond.) and i guess between the two projects i must have scattered the horse/bull knettle seeds all over the feild.