Anyone else have problems with milkweed in their pastures?

They dont seem as bad as last year here. I spent 8 hours last year in the pastures with the bush hog and weedeater taking care of them

Will any aninals eat them? goats? pasture pigs?

Dont want them to seed out
 

I've heard that the Monarch butterfly needs milkweed to survive. Don't know if that is true or not, but I do know that 2,4d WILL get rid of milkweed.
 
They like to return even if you cut them before seeding, but seems cutting them can be effective, enough to keep them from going to seed at least. In dry years, I've seen them just wilt on the hillside here and never grow seed pods. Might be one of the easier ones to deal with just by cutting.
 
you may want to sell the seed pods just before they open. the seeds sell for about 3 dollars for 50 seeds to home gardeners as the monarch butterfly is in trouble. i have a nursery buddy that will buy all the seed pods i can get for him. if not grazon will probably take care of it.
 
Not in the pastures,but there's a field of soybeans south of me that was solid milkweed. They sprayed it about two weeks ago and wiped it out,but if they hadn't,the milkweed surely would have shaded out all the beans.
 
That is interesting, I've got a field not in use that I just cut with the rotary mower, with a fair amount of milkweed in it.
 
It is my understanding,from our local extension office,that they are poisonous/toxic to cattle and horses in dry hay.In a pasture animals don't seem to eat them,but they might in hay.That being said,I have baled some in hay before,fed it,and saw no ill effects;but I cannot say it was eaten either. Mark
 
Milkweed and in south jersey we have butterfly weed. Both are needed by the butterfly population. Butterfly weed has the big orange flower heads.
 
I have trouble with milkweed, some in pastures and others in hay field. They spread rapidly once they get started and seem to mature quickly to seed stage. I spray with the same stuff I use on Canada thistle, our Co op has "weedmaster" combination of 2,4D and Banvil that seems effective, also have used Milestone which is more expensive but seems to get longer term results
 
The wife and I harvest the bud stems just before they blossom and steam them just like broccoli. They are just as good as broccoli and don't take up garden space. We also freeze some.The pods can also be eaten at a certain stage, but we haven't tried that.
Loren, the Acg.
 
And now, in its infinite wisdom, the government has decided to establish milkweed in a corridor from MN to TX, to enhance habitat of the monarch butterfly. MPLS Tribune, about two weeks ago. Complaining that farmers have destroyed their habitat. What part of "weed" don"t they understand?
 
Our horses would discard it, I have gotten some otherwise nice hay with some milkweed in it. I would spot and remove most if not all of it in each flake of hay before feeding anyway, but any that got past me was left behind.
 
They're toxic to livestock as far as I know. A few won't hurt anybody, but I don't think there are any animals that'll thrive from eating them.

Just keep doing what you're doing and you should get it under control without having to bother with chemicals. As long as they don't go to seed, you'll have far fewer each season.

I actually walk the fields and pull them by hand when I see them. They pop right out effortlessly, root and all. Because I do that, there aren't many to pull in the first place, so it's not as much work as it may sound. They can get out of control fast so it's worth that effort to nip the problem in the bud, so to speak.
 
I have done that in one of our fields when crops were planted, eradicated all by hand, they do pull easily when young.
 

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