# weed help



## gwithrow (Feb 5, 2005)

our pastures are full of 'yellow crownbeard', verbesina occidentalis for those of you who do the proper names...and I have just been told, 'no, it is stickweed'....well whatever the heck it is, it is terrible...and out of control...the county agent says all I can do is spray with chemicals....ok, but they will kill off the clover as well as the weed..I can save the grasses but kill the clover we have worked so hard to get distributed throughout our pasture lands....

I know for sure that goats won't touch it, and the cows don't even like to nose down and eat the grass underneath....it can grow to 13 feet....how's that for a weed!....I have been following the cows and clipping high to keep it from being the most towering thing out there....but since we have a few small cherry trees in there too, I go after the cows so they won't get wilted cherry...

so I am hoping some knowledgeable person here will have a suggestion...I would prefer not to use chemicals, but I am not willing to surrender to this noxious weed...would sheep eat it?...the donkeys also are not interested...

we have worked very hard using MIG to improve our grassy areas and build the soil and microbial action in the pastures, it seems chemicals would just put us back to square one....help!!!


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## Allen W (Aug 2, 2008)

Look into a wicker or weed wiper, I'll try to find some links later.


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## SCRancher (Jan 11, 2011)

What Allen W said - I'm considering the same for some tall weeds that way I don't kill off my clover either.


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## agmantoo (May 23, 2003)

gwithrow,

I would think your clover is nearly flat to the ground with the heat and drought and that the yellow crownbeard is upright. A weed wiper should kill the weeds and miss most if not all of the clovers. Grazon would be the herbicide of choice. PS the yellow crownbeard is a perennial so if you do not kill it, it will return even if you keep it from going to seed. If your future grass growth is substantial you could suppress the yellow crownbeard if lucky. Reducing your paddock size and having more animals to a reduced area(mob graze) may enable you to trample most of the weed next year. Spraying is more certain.


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## gwithrow (Feb 5, 2005)

ok I am looking into weed wiper....this stuff has to go even if it means we lose clover...we have had rain all along and wouldn't you know it, our pastures are pretty good this year...grass growing all along and even the clover is not too bad...not too tall but not too bad either...the extension agent did mention grazon as well...looks like we need to deal with this last year....


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## gwithrow (Feb 5, 2005)

so where does one purchase a weed wiper?


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## Dreamfarm (Dec 10, 2011)

Weed Wipers - US (United States) - Suppliers of Weed Wipers on Kellysearch


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## Allen W (Aug 2, 2008)

Used Farm Equipment for Sale | Used Farm Equipment | Fastline.com

The grass works one looks interesting, I've used the speidel wickers for wicking rye with round up.


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## agmantoo (May 23, 2003)

This is close as I can get to a source
http://www.acrsales.com/qualitycarts.asp

I have one with a trail cart and it is OK and the price was justifiable. I bought mine at a farm show.


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## Allen W (Aug 2, 2008)

We made a simple boom for a front end loader and ran two of the speidel wicks on it.


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## gwithrow (Feb 5, 2005)

one of our local feed dealers has a weed wiper with a three point hitch...he will rent it out...but says that Grazon is restricted....and so I can't get it...I guess we will see if we can find it anyway....

I would prefer to use equipment on the loader, it seems that would be more effective and easier to adjust as we roll along...but if nothing else is available I think I will at least try the unit he has and see how it goes...these pastures have lots of terraces and difficult areas to 'roll' over so there may be a bit of hand spraying....I think someone needs to find the beetle that will eat only them...


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