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| What is the best herbicide to spray on pastures to attempt to kill some pretty thick patches of thistles? It would be best if the herbicide has no grazing restrictions for non-lactating animals but I could deal with it if I had to pull the animals out for a week or so if need be. There are some soybean fields relatively close to these pastures so I guess drift is somewhat of a concern but I assume anything worth spraying will have some 2,4D in it?
Is Grazon P+D the best choice or are they better ones out there? |
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SE SD | best choice would be milestone, or forefront, have had good luck with it, and its cheaper than tordon. dont skimp on the rates. |
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New Mexico | stuff actually.
Cheap and is the most "bang for the buck" by far.
Heck mow the thistles now, spray those spots this fall.
( best kill for next year is spray right after the first couple freezes ).
Next year IF anything shows up late spray it again in the fall then.
2 years of the afore...and you likely won't have to spray again for a couple years after that.
( and there's always other products too., 24d, tordon, banvel, etc.. |
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Virginia | Milestone would be my choice. I wouldn't recommend Grazon. |
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Cedar Rapids, Iowa | 2 pt ForeFront with some Preference |
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new prague mn | forefront |
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NE Iowa | Used Grazon for a few years and it worked good. There are generics of it now that are cheaper. I think Gunslinger is one of them. I've gone to using a pint of 2-4D mixed with a half pint of generic Banzel. Generic Banvel is only about $36 a gallon. My pasture spraying philosoohy has become spray everything every year but use something cheap rather than spot spray the good stuff. |
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Oklahoma Panhandle | What thistle do you have? Yellow spine, musk or what? |
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| I think they are mostly bull thistles. The can get over 5' tall here. They look alot like these in the pics, so if they are not bull thistles, they must be pretty closely related. Maybe they are canadian thistle? I'm not sure.
Edited by sparrell 6/12/2011 20:08
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Panhandle of Ne. | For canadian thistle, I have had the best luck with a product called widematch at 1.3 pints per acre. It is a combination chemical. Won't drift as bad or not nearly as volatile as 2-4d or banvel. Have completely cleaned up corn fields that had several acres of canadian thistle, it did take several years, but on pasture, you could spray it more than once a year.
http://www.beyondpesticides.org/dow/indepth/labels/widematch.pdf |
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Virginia | I'm still staying with my recommendation of milestone which doesn't contain 2,4-D. I've had excellant results with Milestone and feel comfortable using it if there are beans in fields nearby. At the very least, I would make a call to the regional Dow rep in your area and get their advice. |
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Colorado | Milestone has worked well for us on Canadian thistle. |
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| We've been using Forefront the last two years and its worked the best for us. I can sure see the spots around the pasture where I missed. |
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southern MN | Bull (we called them Russian thistles around 'here') thistles are a biannual that grow 2 years. The first year they gorw the plant, no seed. The 2nd year they grow the tall plant full of seed heads. Then that is it, they die.
They are pretty easy to control with just mowing, clip them down so the seed head never comes out, and they die off. They are extremely prickly, will punch through a regular leather glove. I'm not real familiar with spraying them, as my small pasture is easy to clip. If you get on a spray program, I'd think an every other year would work great, none would go to seed....
Canadian thistle a hungry cow will actually eat, anyhow when young & tender, the prickle is more than we can take a but a thin leather glove works good. They grow from seed, the root, or chopped up stems in dirt, they grow from anything. They grow in heavy patched, like a strawberry patch. Once established, even tillage doesn't really bother them, they will come right back from the very deep root, as well as any root or stem that is left in damp ground will grow roots & flourish. They grow about forever perannual, and you need to spray them often to get rid of them, the first time or 2 only beats back the top growth. They are best controlled in fall - in spring they are trying to feed their buds so the sap is running up from deep root reserves. In fall they run the sap down to the root to resupply the massive root system, and will die much easier.
So depends what you have, as to what sort of program you need. They are very different plants.
Edit: Many of the products mentioned in this thread are long-lasting broadleaf killers, and while you can graze beef on them with little or no restriction time, be aware the manure from the cattle will continue to have the active ingredient in it well concentrated and will mess up broadleaf crops even a year later. Probably not a problem if you are just grazing the beef in the pasture, but if you are combining a feedlot and collecting the manure.....
--->Paul
Edited by paul the original 6/12/2011 21:44
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Driftless SW Wisconsin | I strongly agree with Mark and Paul - mow them now to keep from going to seed.. Spray in fall if they are that heavy. The idea that you can spray with something strong enough to kill these very tough weeds then also go out and have your cattle grazing on forage with the same strong spray on it just does not seem to make a lot of sense to me, to be honest. Even a week does not sound like long enough to be really safe on something that strong. If nothing else think of the value of those cattle and the risk you would be taking grazing after spraying. Mow it now and spray it in the fall after grazing is done for the season in that pasture as suggested above would be safest for your cattle and soybeans. jmho. Jim at Dawn |
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Alliance, NE | Widematch here too. Not sure of grazing restrictions. We are getting more and more canadian thistle every year it seems like. I use it in corn and wheat fields. |
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| Now, what do you think a call to the regional Dow rep is going to tell you???? "No, don't use Milestone...." ?????? Come on now..... if you call the Dow rep, you know what they are going to say. |
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SE WISCONSIN | stinger it will kill root and all |
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Panhandle of Ne. | http://www.mottagronomy.com/herbicides/dow/dow.htm |
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North Central Kansas | I am spraying my Musk Thistle with 2-4D LV6 and escort. One day they are curled up. Two days they are done. They got kind of big on me so the mix is pretty stout. |
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Virginia | No, what I think the rep would probably say in this case is that between Milestone and Forefront the Milestone would be the better of the two.
And BTW, whether you believe it or not, there have been times when a rep has recommended a competitors product because of better control on the weed in question. |
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High Springs, Florida | I believe Forefront is Milestone plus 2,4d. |
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Virginia | You are absolutely correct. That's why I prefer the Milestone rather than the Forefront in a situation where there could be injury to beans. |
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SESD | Forefront (24d with milestone) or just straight milestone. Works great, and long kill. |
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SWOH | Milestone or Forefront. We used some Milestone in waterways a few years back when we had a serious thistle problem. It scorched 'em and they still haven't come back. |
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Spraying thistles in pastures?
