Buck Hollow Sporting Goods - click or touch to visit their website Midwest Habitat Company

Old Field Management - Fescue Elimination

BearCreek

Member
I'm in the process of converting 10 acres of cattle pasture to deer/turkey habitat. I was unable to spray the fescue last fall and sprayed a portion of it in May this year with Gly and got a good kill. The remaining fescue is extremely tall. I am assuming it will start to lay down at some point. My plan is to spray with gly this fall to eliminate remaining fescue. Should I mow it sometime this summer or will I still get a good kill if it is tall and laying down?
 
Laying down and mowing both present potential issues. I would lean towards mowing it and them letting everything come back up thru the trash and spraying then. I've had pretty good luck mowing and then burning and then spraying fresh regrowth. Smoked and completely clean seed bed with no trash. This may not be needed depending on what you are planting in its place.
 
Initially, I won't be planting anything in its place. Possibly, NWSG, I just want weeds and some shrubby structure to start with.
 
Laying down and mowing both present potential issues. I would lean towards mowing it and them letting everything come back up thru the trash and spraying then. I've had pretty good luck mowing and then burning and then spraying fresh regrowth. Smoked and completely clean seed bed with no trash. This may not be needed depending on what you are planting in its place.
This ^^ is what I would do too.
 
I would consider clethadim instead of gly use a grass only herbicide so you don't kill everything again? If your not going to plant keep the forbs and schrubs that have started to grow.

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk
 
Discing will produce all sorts of weeds after you kill off the fescue. You may not like them all, but a whole lot of diversity will be released most likely.
 
you could always mow and disc it now....see what comes back(im sure plenty of fescue) but you may be surprised whats laying down there in your soil...may also be easier to get a good kill on the fescue this fall....i dont feel there is a bad way of going about this
 
Where is your pasture located? Iowa? How long has the pasture been out of production? Has it been intensively managed for grazing? Or is it just old, rough ground that’s not been farmed?

I would go with what others have said with spraying and mowing. I would avoid discing at all costs. Seems like those old pasture seed beds are going to shed light to all kinds of weed seed. I noticed this year Canadian thistle was one of them that really really took off on ground similar to what you’ve described. (5$ Corn made decisions easy for many)

I burned some old old CRP last spring and then disked small 1 acre area for a plot. The plot had all kinds of different broadleaf weeds. There were some natives that took off but same natives were in the stand of grass that was burned and not disked. The disking made for a nice seed bed for my foodplot but allowed for all sorts of dormant weed seeds to germinate.

I would let it go and mow off everything come spring. Then I would burn. Let stuff regrow and use selective herbicide to weed out the bad stuff and keep what your looking for.
 
The pasture is located in west central Illinois. It was grazed (over grazed) until October 26 of last year. I was able to disc a little in late February and those areas had a nice flush of ragweed and other beneficial "weeds." I've introduced shrubs into it, so I can burn, but would need to be very careful to avoid killing those. I sprayed some areas of it with Gly in early May to see what would replace the fescue and pasture clover, some good stuff came up, but a ton of horsenettle has appeared. Thanks for your comments.
 
If you just want to kill the fescue, mow it in September and then spray the field with gly or cleth after a couple of good frosts. The natives will go dormant and the fescue will still be growing. This is a way to selectively kill the fescue.

If you want to kill everything and start new (frost seed NWSG for example), mow it then spray. Spray again 2 weeks later and you should have a solid kill on everything. Then could no til nwsg over winter.
 
If you just want to kill the fescue, mow it in September and then spray the field with gly or cleth after a couple of good frosts. The natives will go dormant and the fescue will still be growing. This is a way to selectively kill the fescue.

If you want to kill everything and start new (frost seed NWSG for example), mow it then spray. Spray again 2 weeks later and you should have a solid kill on everything. Then could no til nwsg over winter.
spray the field with gly or cleth after a couple of good frosts.


This from above works the best IMO. I had a field of brome with some natives in it(from a previous mostly failed seeding) and sprayed it in early November last fall with GLY, after some frosts, and the brome is now gone and I have a nice 14 acre field of natives.
 
I was getting ready to post a similar question and saw this thread so thought it may be a good place to add onto. I have a long narrow pasture that winds along a small creek. Hasnt seen cattle for a year so about waste high. I assume it is brome and orchard, had a fair amount of burdock growing. I would like to start over and seed this to a CP25 type mix. Recommendations on how to get the best kill before seeding? I have heard/read that this brome/orchard seems to keep coming back and fights the natives
 
I was getting ready to post a similar question and saw this thread so thought it may be a good place to add onto. I have a long narrow pasture that winds along a small creek. Hasnt seen cattle for a year so about waste high. I assume it is brome and orchard, had a fair amount of burdock growing. I would like to start over and seed this to a CP25 type mix. Recommendations on how to get the best kill before seeding? I have heard/read that this brome/orchard seems to keep coming back and fights the natives
I would mow it in August, and then once it greens back up to about 5" tall , spray it with GLY and 2-4D if needed, then you can go back spray it again in October . Then frost seed in February or March. Then next summer you likely will have to mow it again once or twice. Should have a good stand by the year after.
 
I would mow it in August, and then once it greens back up to about 5" tall , spray it with GLY and 2-4D if needed, then you can go back spray it again in October . Then frost seed in February or March. Then next summer you likely will have to mow it again once or twice. Should have a good stand by the year after.
Yes this but I would add fire in there sometime before you seed....getting rid of the years of thatch on the ground will help tremendously getting those tiny seeds so good soil contact....you could burn November time frame or late feb early march
 
Yes this but I would add fire in there sometime before you seed....getting rid of the years of thatch on the ground will help tremendously getting those tiny seeds so good soil contact....you could burn November time frame or late feb early march
good point, agreed
 
Thank you for the great advise. I assume there is nothing i will be able to spray after the natives germinate because the mix will contain both grasses and broadleaves?
 
We are trying to decide how to approach some overgrown pasture areas that will no longer have cattle come late October. Prime bedding is the goal. There is plenty of cedars, brush, shingle oaks, MFR, etc. right now but also open areas within that have been grazed short and look like fairways. Some of the best bedding I see in North MO and Southern IA have these characteristics aside from the fairway length grasses in the openings.

Options we are looking at but open to other ideas.
1. Spray this fall and drill or broadcast switchgrass. These areas will have some shade so the switch won't get very thick, which might be perfect. The short grass conditions now would make seed to soil contact easier if we decide to take this route.
2. Spray this fall and let nature take it's course.
3. Do nothing and let the grass in the open areas come back. The best doe bedding area I've ever seen was essentially this. It's an active cattle pasture with patches cedars/brush/MFR/Osage with 12-14" grasses in the open areas.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Thanks
 
We are trying to decide how to approach some overgrown pasture areas that will no longer have cattle come late October. Prime bedding is the goal. There is plenty of cedars, brush, shingle oaks, MFR, etc. right now but also open areas within that have been grazed short and look like fairways. Some of the best bedding I see in North MO and Southern IA have these characteristics aside from the fairway length grasses in the openings.

Options we are looking at but open to other ideas.
1. Spray this fall and drill or broadcast switchgrass. These areas will have some shade so the switch won't get very thick, which might be perfect. The short grass conditions now would make seed to soil contact easier if we decide to take this route.
2. Spray this fall and let nature take it's course.
3. Do nothing and let the grass in the open areas come back. The best doe bedding area I've ever seen was essentially this. It's an active cattle pasture with patches cedars/brush/MFR/Osage with 12-14" grasses in the open areas.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Thanks

Do you have any remaining cool season grasses in these area(s)? If so, first priority would be eliminating the CSG.. Per steps above - Either through 1) selective herbicides and/or 2) selective timing of your use of herbicides.

You could also eliminate the MFR as it's an invasive. There's another thread that I started on this about herbicide options..

I agree adding switch to the open sections would make great bedding!
 
We are trying to decide how to approach some overgrown pasture areas that will no longer have cattle come late October. Prime bedding is the goal. There is plenty of cedars, brush, shingle oaks, MFR, etc. right now but also open areas within that have been grazed short and look like fairways. Some of the best bedding I see in North MO and Southern IA have these characteristics aside from the fairway length grasses in the openings.

Options we are looking at but open to other ideas.
1. Spray this fall and drill or broadcast switchgrass. These areas will have some shade so the switch won't get very thick, which might be perfect. The short grass conditions now would make seed to soil contact easier if we decide to take this route.
2. Spray this fall and let nature take it's course.
3. Do nothing and let the grass in the open areas come back. The best doe bedding area I've ever seen was essentially this. It's an active cattle pasture with patches cedars/brush/MFR/Osage with 12-14" grasses in the open areas.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Thanks
My only negative thoughts about the switch is that at some point you should burn it....and unless your able to control that burn specifically to the switch areas you will lose all your other cover...
My other thought is that if you could control a burn now(this coming spring), you could just burn those areas and seed what is in the seed bank and comes back...
 
Top Bottom