Weed Control

After recently retiring for the second time, I am considering some tasks that I have been putting off for years.

One such task is weed control in my small 20 acre hay field. I do not do the hay in this field. Rather, a friend cuts and bales the, mostly brome grass, hay once each year. Of course, a single cutting, usually in July allows annuals, etc., to become established. Moreover, the field has become infested with both perennial milkweeds and Canadian thistles over the past 10-15 years. This year, both, as well as other weeds, have exploded due to the enormous amount of rain.

I am considering a spraying plan to control the Canadian thistles and milkweeds. Note: This is simply a labor of love. I realize no return on my small field but this is the "family farm" and I try to keep it looking good for personal reasons. I do not own a sprayer but may buy a small 55 Gallon, three point mounted one for use both in the field and in my lawn.

Recently, I took samples of the thistles and milkweeds to my county extension office for advise. I expected to learn that the milkweeds could be easily controlled but that the Canadian thistles would require more effort. Surprisingly, I learned that Canadian thistles were rather easily controlled with 2-4-D but the milkweeds were resistant to most selective herbicides. The agent recommended a Roundup burn down followed by reseeding. Folks, I'm not a real farmer, and do not have any tillage/seeding equipment. At my age, I really do not want to do this for a small field that I simply want to look good.

My friend that does the hay on my field told me that there is a rather new chemical named Millstone that is "effective" on both Canadian thistles and milkweeds. I poked around on the internet for Millstone and found that it is rated "good" for Canadian thistles and "fair" for milkweeds. I also found a price of $1,000 per quart. WTF!

Anyone have any experience with Millstone herbicide? Information regarding effectiveness on perennial milkweeds and pricing would be most helpful.

Any other suggestions or advise would be appreciated.

Dean

Why not just bush hog it a couple times after he cuts the hay? It'll set the weed growth back and let the grasses thicken up which will also help choke out the weeds.

Kill the thistles and leave the milkweed. Monarch butterflies need the milkweed for survival. We almost wiped them out when we got rid for the milkweed. State now even mows around the milkweed when mowing roadsides. Monarchs are making a comeback. And NO I am not a tree hugger. I killed my fair share of milkweed in the 50-60's. You want it to look good, wait till you have a field full of Monarch's fluttering around.

I recently used Milestone on a hillside of ironweed. I have been mowing it religiously ,usually twice a year-it is pasture. But the ironweeds never died out from mowing. The Milestone only cost @$110.00 for a quart,and @ 5-7ounces per acre was the spray rate. The jury is still out on the effectiveness-all the weeds look stunted.BUT-the evening I sprayed,dew came up early,and I was spraying on damp ground,so that may have diluted my spray rate.A neighbor just sprayed his field,during daytime, with Milestone to kill out Canadian Thistle,and some iron weed-I will go over in a few days to see if he had better results on his iron weeds. I cannot comment on milkweed.
HOWEVER,there is an important note to using Milestone:if you cut the hay,it stays in the manure,and will kill sensitive crops if you spread it on crop ground-the next year. That's VERY IMPORTANT to remember. ALSO-VERY IMPORTANT- you need to spray while the weeds are vegetative - that means actively growing,and not headed out with a seed head. It's getting late in the fall for that.Mark.

The problem is that I have 2 kinds of milkweeds. The so-called Monarch milkweeds are easily controlled in my small field by simply pulling them up after a rain. Though not sure, I believe that these are annuals. I've been pulling them up for some time, and they do not seem to spread unless I allow them to seed out.

The problem milkweeds are perennials, and spread by ryzome. Monarch butterflies do not feed on these, AFAIK. These do spread even if I mow them before seeding.

FWIW, when small, I did entomology in 4-H and hatched out my share of Monarch butterflies in Mayonnaise jars in the 1950s-1960s. I am well aware of the Monarch migration.

Dean

I've done that a time or two recently. It helps but does not eliminate the perennials.

Dean

Thanks, Mark. Very helpful.

I'm not planning to spray this fall but looking to establish a plan for next year.

Dean

I would keep the milkweed for the butterflies if this is not a field you need to cut.

But like Mark said aminopyralid (Millstone about $14 per acre or GrazonNext HL about $12 per acre) is some nasty stuff.
It can be used on fields where the composted hay or manure is used on pasture or wheat but should not be used where the by product gets to vegatables.

If you want rid of the milkweed run the hay cutter off and cut the field often.
Milkweed can not stand constant cutting.

I used Milestone with a backpack sprayer on tansy ragwort for a couple of years, and it actually kills it, rather than just burning it back like 2,4-D. So this year I swallowed hard and sprayed the whole field. I paid $116 for a quart, but just bought another quart for $88. I used about 5 oz. per acre. Won't know until next spring how well it did, but looks like a got a good kill of all broadleafs.

Don't spray Roundup and re-seed- more effort than its worth, for your situation. Sounds like a typical extension agent- pretty free with other people's money and effort.

I've had some good luck on milk weeds by keeping them cut a couple of years before they go to seed. I don't know if thistles would work the same way. Definitely have to stop the seeds to have any chance of control.

Thanks, Charlie.

Apparently, I have both easy to control annual milkweeds and difficult to control perennial (ryzoming) milkweeds.

Was hoping for an easy way out but there may not be one.

Dean

Thanks, Coshoo.

I don't know anything about tansy ragwort, so let us know when you know more.

In the meanwhile I'll research it.

Dean

Thanks, John.

Apparently, I have both annual and perennial milkweed. The annual milkweed is no problem. I have a limited number of these and usually just pull them up after a rain and before they seed out. They usually do not come back in the same place.

The perennials are a different matter. No, I do not mow them regularly but have tried mowing the heavy spots a couple of times each year. This seems to slow spreading but they still come back.

I was hoping to avoid mowing this field multiple times each year, but, maybe, I cannot avoid it. I will need a larger mower to do it but do have an adequate tractor for a 12"-15" BW.

Decisions, decisions.

Dean

Yes there are several types of milkweeds and I be humble that I do not know the correct type. Now the type in the photo is on my farm and did have Monarch two years ago. Down here in south jersey there are areas that have lots of Butterfly Weed. This stuff can have two caterpillars munching away on one plant! I have been carefully hand propagating these in the back field and several fence rows. You can buy them in seed catalogs and would highly recomend you try some. They come back two, three, and four years. Pretty tough plants but hard to establish. Orange is my favorite color so these just ring my chimes.

I looked up tansy ragwort, Coshoo.

Fortunately, I do not have this, at least not yet.

Dean

I just attended a class on weed control in hay fields. I live over in Ky, near Alexandria, not too far from you I think. Anyway, one thing I learned other than spraying, is how important it is to clip hay fields often after the last cutting. I am like you in that my neighbor takes my hay once a year, generally late May or early June. I have about 25 acres in 5 fields, and I have mowed all 5 at least 4 times this summer, more than usual because of the abundance of rain. Ellis

Thanks, Ellis.

Yes, we're close. I'm in Dearborn County, IN.

The problem that I have is my hay guy fertilizes the field in April or so. He then cuts the hay late, usually in late July, or even August, so I cannot mow it until then.

He has not yet decided whether he will cut it again this year (because of all of the rain) so I cannot mow it yet.

Decisions, decisions.

Dean

I bought a kit to make a rope wick weed wiper. Works good with roundup when the weeds are taller than the grass. It only kills what it touches. I think I got the kit from Grassworks

I've had one of those since the 1980s.

I once used it with undiluted Roundup on what I then thought were Canadian thistles.

Worked great but now there are simply too many Canadian thistles and milkweeds and they are often not above the level of the grass for it to be effective.

Dean

Someone below mentioned the wick applicator. This is minefor wiping the tall weeds above the cranberries.
You could easily adapt the roller onto the back of a 3 Pt hitch sprayer.

The roller is an old piece of 4" aluminum irrigation pipe with an insert and 1/2" shaft in each end. It is driven by a surplus windshield wiper motor. It runs maybe 20-30 rpm to keep the herbicide from dripping and to wipe against the weeds for better coverage.
The pipe is wrapped in outdoor carpet which acts like a sponge to hold what ever herbicide you want... I put 15-20 glyphosate or and 2:4d if required.

The 1/2" pvc had 1/16" holes drilled every 1/2-3/4" along the bottom. Once the roller is damp I just give it a squirt every so often to keep it topped up. If there is too much it will drip on the crop below.

Usually go very slow and wipe in two directions. In a 20 acre field it would take at least 3-4 hours each direction.

If you don't have much maybe a a hockey stick wiper would be better. Google Red Weeder

As far as what herbicide would work for you I have no idea. Good luck. Grant

I am not far from you in central Kentucky. Herbicides are complex, so check them out for hay and grazing restrictions.
Depending on where your hay man takes his hay, the long term impact of the herbicide may be a problem. If he sells hay to a lady that stables her horse where the hay is shipped to a composter and ends up in Ohio vegetable gardens and kills all their tomato plants, well they probably won't trace it back to you, but why do that to someone?But if he is going to feed it to his cows on the next farm over....no big deal. That is why I don't use Milestone.

My experience. For hay going somewhere unknown...I use Crossbow or Weedmaster.

For pastures that I often cut for hay but only use on the farm I use Grazon Next HL.

I suggest you kill the thistles first ,.....then work on the milkweed.

If it is a nice easy field to spray, not a lot of fences, gates, trees, obstacles, why not hire a sprayer with the big equipment and the licenses and the expertise to do it? In my area the charge is $6/acre...$300 minimum. No grief, no worry, no spills, no safety equipment, reduced liability, and you get his knowledge for free. He may only need to spray it once to get it under control, then you can check out smaller alternatives after the big kill.

The only reason I spray anything is because I can not move all the animals off the small pastures to allow him to spray the whole farm in one trip.

One other point. Many of the sprays are very volatile and will kill your neighbors plants a few hundred yards away ( under some conditions). My neighbors were tobacco growers and tobacco was highly sensitive to Crossbow. I never sprayed Crossbow when they had a crop in the ground.

"[b:654c4848f0][i:654c4848f0]<font color="#6699ff">I am considering a spraying plan to control the Canadian thistles and milkweeds.[/i:654c4848f0][/b:654c4848f0]</font>"

You might consider using <a href="http://www.dowagro.com/en-us/range/products/grazonnext-hl">GrazonNext HL</a> herbicide.

There is additional information on the right side of the home page [b:654c4848f0]Related Downloads[/b:654c4848f0] in the [i:654c4848f0]Introducing GrazonNext Herbicide[/i:654c4848f0] PDF file.

We have been using GrazonNext HL on all of our hay fields with very good results.

"[b:654c4848f0][i:654c4848f0]<font color="#6699ff">I do not own a sprayer but may buy a small 55 Gallon, three point mounted one for use both in the field and in my lawn.[/i:654c4848f0][/b:654c4848f0]</font>"

We have used a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCUEeGboEbi8_lxzcqsWjvKp250bQDcYb">three point mounted sprayer</a> for many years on all areas of our farm for many years.

Hope this helps.

The unusually wet year has caused increased weeds in many fields for sure. Are you fertilizing, or at least taking soil samples to monitor pH and if you need to add N after cuttings? Local Ag service or Southern States soils tests can help you plan ahead. Plants exist in competition, like a big petri dish. Optimize conditions for Brome to excel, and cut or spray weeds before they go to seed heads critical. Maybe add legumes to help, easy to do via frost seeding when soils have those fissures cracks in the early mornings.

coshoo. where did you find the milestone for that price? thanks.

Multiple cuttings per year has a positive impact on controlling weeds. Why only one cutting per year? Our governor goofy would love your hey field. He thinks milkweed should be seeded in the I35 corridor all the way from MN to TX, to help the Monarch butterfly. He doesn"t understand the "weed" portion of milkweed.

24D will not do very much on these weeds.

Fall is the absolutely best time to get out there with Grazon at 1 qt per acre, 10 gals of mix per acre. And come back in spring for another dose.
How much are you getting paid for the grass hay? How many tons does the friend get off there. He may have to do what you want until you get the weeds under control. I agree that it sounds like he is largely responsible for those weeds and if not for him you would have them gone already.

I'm also surprised your extension service said 2-4D controls Canadian thistles. 2-4D will knock down the upper part of the thistles, but it won't kill the roots. 2-4D will barely control dandelions unless it is applied in the fall when dandelions pull the herbicide down into their roots.

It takes a lot of effort or strong chemicals to kill Canadian thistles. Frequent mowing or spraying to prevent them from going to seed and to starve the roots can help as part of long term control plan. Is Tordon K still legal?