Controling pasture growth

[Highsmith]

Plan on leasing ~500 acres. A lot of it will have to be mowed per lease agreement. I want to run a combination of cattle and goats. Will an appropriate number/balance of animals control the growth of grass and weeds so I can limit my mowing?

[JazzDad]

Hello, High. You'll find that the cattle will eat their favorite grasses and the goats will eat their favorite forbs, and you'll still have a lot of unwanted "weeds" merrily swaying in the breeze. With not nearly as many acres or animals as you plan to work, we've had to cut the pastures twice this year to keep down the unwanted brush. Look at neighbors' land in the area and see what works for them. Good luck, Bret.

[egon]

Chances are that unless you use intensive grassed paddocks that are changed on a regular basis you may not have much success. The paddocks will allow the grass to regenerate.

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Michael]

Not an easy question to answer, it's full of variables. Are you going to disk and plant for the winter? If not, then mow it and don't buy livestock before next spring after natural growth comes in. If you are going to plant winter grass and run calves on it for the winter and sell in the spring I would not go more than a 1/1 calf/acre ratio. If you aren't going to put cows on it until spring I would not go more than 1 cow to every 2 acres.

[RichZ]

Goats won't work for you unless you have some kind of a shelter for them. They can't take rain or snow, they have to be inside during bad weather. And they'd have to be fed during the winter.

[Handyman]

Why not add a few sheep and horses ?

[almenira]

I want to kill persimmons dead sent solution
thank-you [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Pat]

almenira, Persimmons are typically not individual plants. If you see several in the same vicinity they are usually connected by common roots. Foliar spraying is an iffy proposition as regards the herbicide, timing, etc. Persimmons, when sprayed on their leaves, typically react by shedding their leaves before much poison gets into the plant. Then they use stored energy in the root system and sprout new leaves and go on as if you had not sprayed them.

Brush hogging to kiill persimmons is a BAD idea. You will get LOTS of seat time, burn lots of diesel, and rack up plenty of time on the hour meter but you will not likely kill many persimmons.

One of the GOOD chemicals for persimmons is Tordon. You can get an applicator that lets you inject a shot of herbicide into the ground next to the trunk. the plant will take up the poison and die. For widespread infestations (thickets) you can inject Tordon on a grid pattern (in compliance with the directions.) By injecting the herbicide into the ground the plants take it up but no herbicide is on the surface. After the herbicide has done its job it biodegrades.

There are also good cocktails of herbicides that work well with basal spraying where you spray the first couple feet of the trunk till the spray runs off and then wet the ground around the base of the plant. This second method gets more spray in the air to drift where you don't want it and onto you and on the surface where it might end up where you don't want it.

Persimmons can be controlled by other means. Intensive grazing in the spring when the leaves first come out stunts the persimmon plant. They store a lot of energy in their roots and they will survive a couple years of this but if you stay with it they die. Cattle do eat the tender young leaves. Brush hogging can make sense if the persimmons are large/tall aa your cutting them down forces them to do short new growth which cattle will eat.

Controlled burns do help but rarely do a good job on persimmons.

Pat

[pappy19]

Spend a little money for a New Zealand electric fence system and use the intensive management pattern. Really works well and keeps the pasture in good shape. A combo of cattle and goats should work fine.