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hey nancy howell....crown vetch ???

glennster

glennster

Well-known Member
found a pretty good patch of what appears to be crown vetch growing along my creek. from what i read on vetch, its an invasive weed, it displaced the brome thats growing along the waterway, and nothing else is growing thru it. dunno if i should leave it as erosion control, or hit it with 2-4d. any experience with it??
heres a link to some pics of it i found on the net
poke here
 
If for erosion control by all means leave it. It is used extensively here in the NorthEast (especially Pennsylvania) for ditchbanks and yes it is very prolific. Most livestock dislike the taste so I would not consider it a good feed source. I'd have to check but I think you will have to hit it with Round Up (or a generic).
 
Crown vetch is used by highway departments as roadside cover in areas where it will grow. It does extremely well in Pennsylvania where it can be seen for miles and miles along Interstate highways. It prevents erosion and looks nice as well and eliminates the need for roadside mowing. As far as it being a "weed" that's a matter of opinion. A weed is defined as "a plant out of place". Corn is weed if it's growing where you don't want it. The vetch can easily be killed with broadleaf weed killer or Roundup.
 

Cows here in SC will graze it when it is young. Hard to get it cut at right stage for hay. The blossoms make great honey.

KEH
 
(quoted from post at 09:46:17 07/29/10) Crown vetch is used by highway departments as roadside cover in areas where it will grow. It does extremely well in Pennsylvania where it can be seen for miles and miles along Interstate highways. It prevents erosion and looks nice as well and eliminates the need for roadside mowing. As far as it being a "weed" that's a matter of opinion. A weed is defined as "a plant out of place". Corn is weed if it's growing where you don't want it. The vetch can easily be killed with broadleaf weed killer or Roundup.
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Yes, it is used here in Iowa also. I've never seen anywhere that it appears to have gone out of control.
 
The only vetch we have is singletary pea. Looks very similar and has a small seed pod. We have pretty much eradicated it on our farm because its toxic to horses.

If its not causing a problem, I would leave it alone.
 
I grow crown vetch for hay (for cattle) on my steepest ground. If it ever starts getting thin, I just let it go to seed before cutting. It's great for this because it's a never-till system. It also fixes nitrogen so it feeds the grasses it grows with pretty well. It's pretty much limited to 1 or 2 cuttings though.

The highway departments here used to use it extensively for erosion control along highways, but they've stopped doing that now because it's a shallow-rooted and long-vined plant so it really is terrible for the job on steep slopes. Some say it actually caused more mudslides than it prevented and I believe it. These days they plant grasses mixed with alfalfa after doing road work.
 
All this talk about Vetch being bad for cows and horses doesn't seem correct to me. One of my neighbors gathered it from the road side to feed his milk cow. We have two fields with vetch in them and have had no trouble feeding our and other animals.Maybe some varieties are bad but I can't say which.
Walt
 
I got some hay once that had it in it. All 3 horses colicked. Had to call the vet. He looked at the hay, spotted the pods and called it singletary pea.

Talked to some other folks about it and they said I was lucky none of the horses died.

Talked to the guy I bought the hay from and he took it back and refunded my money.

After he came and got the hay, I cleaned up every shred of that stuff and especially any pods.
 
Crown Vetch is good pasture rather hard to get a good stand started at least I had trouble. I makes very good hay, but hard to mow and cure. My Dad talked to a guy one time that had about 3 acres he fertlized like he would alfalfa, he got 3 cutting from it a total of 175 60# square bales per acre. If cut early it would be much easer to cut and cure. Extensive pasturing will kill it. I had some in a 20 Acre field I used for hay fescue and Red clover not tilled 1/2 # Crown vetch seed per acre along with Red Clover. I did not have any C.V. come up until several years later, after a dry year. I never did cut it until later when the Red Clover was ready. When I sold that 80 the 20 was on it had spread over about 1/3 of the field total. Each year it would have a little more come up. I see the people that own it now have sprayed it and no tilled soy beans.
 
looks like i may leave it grow for a while and see what happens. patch right now is about 20 ft x 20 ft. what concerns me is it choked out all the brome grass, milkweed, bindweed and curly dock that was grwoing there, and the patch is nothing but crown vetch, its almost like it poisoned every other plant there.
 
(quoted from post at 17:02:57 07/29/10) looks like i may leave it grow for a while and see what happens. patch right now is about 20 ft x 20 ft. what concerns me is [b:b08eebc01a]it choked out[/b:b08eebc01a] all the brome grass, [b:b08eebc01a]milkweed, bindweed and curly dock[/b:b08eebc01a] that was grwoing there, and the patch is nothing but crown vetch, its almost like it poisoned every other plant there.
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Sounds like a good thing to me....
 
Hey glennster,

Kinda think your spending WAY TOO much time in the woods. Is it time to get back to the shop?

Jim

Flipside tho, I've been spending WAY TOO much time at work and my woods are OUT OF CONTROL!
 
Shake Me up and Tell Me stop if I am Wrong ,, I agree with You GUYS ABOUT SILVER CROWN VETCH , that grows on a few propertys I mowe for hay , my Cows love it , and now i have a small start in my pasture in the woods ,, Doubtful if Its INVASIVE , just consistant ,, because in the 15 yrs I have known these areas the spots have not gotten any much bigger , Kinda reminds me of JAPANESE STILT GRASS ( YOU DO NOT WANT THAT STUFF EVER , as bad as kudzu) especially in a woods
 
It is junk, get rid of it as soon as you can because it will get out into the middle of your hay fields. Hairy vetch is desirable and has palatability but crown vetch does not. Cows will usually not voluntarily graze it and it is super hard to get dry, but down where you are with all that heat I am sure it will cure easier. I used glyphosate to kill it and it worked good.
 
jim, there is still 160 ton of rip rap stone and a wheel barrow waiting for ya!!!!prolly only take a young guy like you half a day to move it and line the creek bank!!!!
 
(this is from ag dept)
In recent years crownvetch has been considered as a source of forage for livestock. Information about the acceptability and nutritive value of crownvetch is still limited, and there is not enough evidence to make a dependable statement as to its merits as a forage crop. It is a non-bloating legume. Some research has indicated that the young growth is palatable but that more mature growth is not readily accepted. In other grazing trials, animals were slow to accept it, but after a few days their performance on crownvetch was comparable to that of other common grass-legume pastures.

Chemical analysis of crownvetch hay has shown that its crude protein and crude fiber content is similar to that of other legume hays. Digestible dry matter of crownvetch hay was below that of other grass-legume hays harvested at the same stage of maturity. Crownvetch hay is often difficult to wilt and cure.
 
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