Cutting Costs

[Shammy Davis]

http://text.lsuagcenter.com/en/crops_li ... +Times.htm

[Blue feather]

Excellent tips!

[ratherrapid]

agree with all but the weed spraying. for crying outloud pasture people, leave a few "weeds" (wild flowers) for the bee and butter fly buddies. harmless to pasture and horses.

[Shammy Davis]

Ratherrapid is absolutely correct about the weeds. Leave them, unless you will be cutting the pasture for hay later in the fall. Many years ago, I recall reading that J. R. Keene's pastures at Castleton, where DOMINO, stood, were filled with weeds. This was certainly a far cry from the manicured pastures of other TB farms in the area. The reason was simple. Studies showed that during draught periods and high summer heat periods, weeds shaded the leafy bluegrass allowing it to survive and thrive. The horses just ate around the weeds and the bluegrass was sustained.

I'll try to find the reference where I read this. My memory, specificially in the instance, is not as good as it used to be.

[madelyn]

Um.. during droughts, the weeds will simply TAKE OVER. Nutritious food grasses don't stand a chance.

[Shammy Davis]

Madelyn: I don't think this article was speaking to the effect of severe very long term draught. It was a print article and I can't for the life of me remember where I put it. I'm sure it was speaking to rain amounts less than normal. As I am sure you are aware, the farm manager has few options available during long term severe draught. The shade effect of the weeds do protect pasture grass. I read this article many years back and it was not scientific, it was empirical. It doesn't take many weeds to make a very good pasture look like hell so I can imagine, poised against the manicured pastures of other central KY farms, Castleton in the early to mid 1900's must have looked a mess. As I think about it now, I wonder if the other farms in that area during that period were not in the same condtion as Castleton and the writer made an incorrect comparison based on current conditions. It is not like they would have high tech equipment used today. Today, research has shown that the deleterious economic effect of pasture weeds occurs when pastures contain 20% infestation.

My Vet worked at Castleton (when it was Standardbreds) and I recall chatting at the time with him about it. He, of course, remembered a pristine Castleton.

I know from personal experience that an agressive approach to eliminating weeds from pastures can sometimes be counter productive and very expensive. (I've noticed recently that herbicide prices are coming down, but w/Diesel costs high weed control is still a formidable undertaking.) Hay fields and the critical elimination of weeds in them is another discussion. Moderate accumulation of pasture weeds doesn't really damage the quality of the pasture (some weeds contain similiar nutrient values and some weeds in early growth are equine palatable) and as RR points out, particularly in late summer, the flowers are quite beautiful.