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Now that the calendar has flipped to 2021, it’s important to evaluate how your weed management program performed in 2020 so you can make informed choices about this year’s inputs.
My last two articles briefly summarized some differences between our conventional industrial production models in the beef industry and the growing “niche” markets that are becoming more prominent. As niche markets grow, so has the focus on regenerative production models because the niche market consumer and producer both tend to have desires to break free from the high input, “bigger is better” industrial mindset.
Over the last 10 years, foxtail seems to have taken over many farms in the Southeast. While early in the summer young foxtail is not very evident, in the late summer and early fall, its seedheads are prevalent throughout fields across the South.
A number of events are converging these days, resulting in constricted budgets for forage producers. Cattle markets are reflecting these occurrences while hay prices continue to be high. But as history has proven, the sun will continue to shine, and the grass will continue to grow – along with the weeds. Fortunately, weeds are something we can control.
One challenge with establishing native grass forages, really, almost any perennial forage, is the lack of forage production during the establishment cycle. Unlike annuals, perennials, especially native warm-season perennials, are distance runners.
Legumes add quality to grass pastures as well as providing other benefits. These plants are most noted for their ability to take nitrogen from soil and convert it to ammonia through their symbiotic relationship with rhizobia nitrogen-fixing bacteria.
Integrated weed management is a strategy combining various preventative and control practices focused on increasing the effectiveness and reducing the cost of managing weeds.
In recent years, many in the Midwest U.S. have experienced wetter-than-normal conditions, causing headaches for many area farmers. Flood conditions bring more issues than just moisture; saturated situations can cause contaminants, alterations to the physical soil profile and a severe loss of nutrients.
