Got Weeds?

Kevin Brown, BCCD, Ag Resource Specialist
I have been going to write this for quite some time now, but something always comes up.  Now it is the time of year where it will make a little less sense, but hopefully you will understand what I am talking about.  Maybe it will help you put fields to bed for the winter in a little better shape than usual and be rewarded next spring.

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First off, what is a weed?  A weed is just any plant that is growing in an area that you don’t want it growing in.  This spring, I saw many of them (buttercup this year).  What causes them to come in?  Why are they there?  Depending on the scenario, if we are talking pastures and hayfields, the reason is that it is not being managed correctly.  I know, I may have just insulted a number of readers.  If so, I apologize.  However, it is true.  Except for one particular weed that I know of, nothing competes with good, healthy, well managed grass.  If you have weeds in it, it is not being managed as well as it should be.

First off, grass is a heavy user of nitrogen (N).  Legumes (clovers, alfalfa, and trefoil) can make their own nitrogen from the atmosphere.  Grasses cannot.  If you don’t supply it, they will yield less and less each year, until weeds start to take over.  Farmers have the advantage of having manure to help supply that, right up until the time they don’t have cows anymore.  Once the cows are gone, the fields go downhill fast.  No one is replacing those nutrients anymore, especially N.  Start topdressing N again, and viola, a new field.

Secondly, grasses store all their reserves in the bottom 3” of the plant.  Graze or cut the plants shorter than that, and you really hurt the ability of the plant to regrow or respond to any stress.  Graze it to the soil, and it just gives up.  I see a ton of this each spring.  The area that the animals were allowed to roam on all winter now has a ton of weeds growing on it.  Weeds the animals won’t eat.  So, there they are, out there in a sea of green, and not a plant to be eaten anywhere.  Meanwhile, you are supplying them with hay while they wander around all kinds of plants in their pastures that they will not consume.  The worst part of that is that every little sprig of grass that may shoot up, gets eaten the minute it is tall enough for them to clip off.  You have just taken that entire area and reduced the yield by 75% or more.  You now have to produce or buy that much more.

One other quick note of weeds.  In overused pasture areas, most of them are annuals.  Just clipping them before they go to seed reduces their numbers dramatically.  That plant is an annual, so it is done.  And, no seeds from it means no future plants (from that plant anyway). 
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99% of all weeds are very poor competitors.  If you have weeds, you have let them in.
 
The Bradford County Conservation District is committed to helping people manage resources wisely.  You can visit the Bradford County Conservation District at 200 Lake Rd in Wysox across from the Wysox Fire Hall. Contact us at (570) 485-3144 or visit our web page at www.bccdpa.com.