Pasture Management

Even after nearly 25 years we still have pasture issues. The weeds never give up. I have sprayed, not sprayed. What I know for sure, however, is you have to spray. Nature won't appreciate your efforts at 'going green' by rewarding you with less weeds.

Depending on what your purpose is for fields you have different programs to work. In the case of horses, like we have, they let you know what they will eat and what they won't. I read that most livestock will eat this disgusting 'dock'. Not horses. They will make a big deal of dropping manure all around the weed and fertilizing it so that it spreads and grows big. My newest method is to use 2-4-D with some dish soap.

Dock weed is invasive, ugly and a nuisance but this milkweed is bad news. Noxious and deadly as well as invasive. I can see dried stands of it all over the place so I have to go after it.

Since this is early spring and only the dock is sprouting up I will focus on it but keep an eye out for the deadly milkweed to show it's scrawny leaves.

This is satisfying work. There is fence repair and ditch work and on it all goes until the end of fall. In the urban areas there is more strife, crowding, fighting, despair than I can deal with. I would not trade my battle with the weeds for a mansion in a concrete jungle.