Agent Orange: Friendly fire that keeps on burning. | Cheat in Spring Wheat / Fallow areas isn't a big deal. You just need to pay attention and not have a year like this, and you can get rid of it. I've done it on many of my fields, but the spot I'm fighting this year is land that the previous owner had not done a good job farming. Essentially what it requires is to keep the grass from making seed, then waiting until late fall to work and kill the late flush. Next spring, you need to work it again to kill off any stragglers or spring flush that could vernalize with cool temps in the spring and make seed. About a 5 year cycle of the above will leave so few viable seeds that it will be a long time before they cause problems. As for foxtail, that's a different story for hay growers. There is an old flood irrigation project along the Milk River between Malta and Saco; about 100 miles west of me. Flood irrigation projects typically have problems with weeds along the myriad ditches and of course there is always the low spot that pools water and not much grows there because it's swampy. One of the locals had sent junior off to college and when he came back, he was ready to make an impression on all; about just what all he'd learned at the "U". During his studies, he came across a plant called Garrison Creeping Foxtail and decided that it would be a nice fit in some of his hayfields that tended to be a bit swampy. Doofus ordered enough seed to plant one whole hayfield. Garrison Creeping Foxtail looks a lot like our regular foxtail, except on steroids! So he did manage to make an impression on the locals, but it wasn't positive. Seems the project now has lots of the super variety of the grass. |