 Good evening and welcome. My name is David Russell. I'm an extension specialist covering statewide weed management responsibilities. I cover corn, soybeans, small grains, forage pastures, and rights-aways. Just to tell you a little bit about myself. I was raised in Mississippi on a cow-calf operation. Spent several years studying forage agronomy and weed science at Mississippi State University before coming here to Auburn University last July. So I have a great appreciation for the beef cattle industry and the land that we manage. And then our topic today is weed controlling pastures. A few of the things I'd like to cover are the different components of our weed management strategies and forages. Go over a few definitions. I think it's always helpful to talk through scenarios that each of you probably face on a daily basis regarding weeds. I'd like to break those between broadleaves and grasses and then end by just sharing some ongoing research that our program is currently working on. So I realize that many of you here obviously are because you're part of the BCAA. You're a member or you have some association with this organization. So it's obvious that you have a vested interest in promoting Alabama's cattle industry. But this is just a reminder that your cattle herd, with all the genetic improvements that you're making, studying all the EPDs, they're only as good as the diet that they're on or the forage that they're grazing. Basically your herd isn't going to reach its full potential on poor forage. Many of us are cattle producers first and forage managers second. So I'm here to kind of encourage not a complete flip of those roles, but to just stress the importance of forage management. So having good quality forage pastures is part of what creates this overall herd health. Because our forages really are an asset and it's an asset like most if neglected it can depreciate. So I'd like to pose this question. What's the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the term weed control? Do you think of bush hogging? Does it bring back memories of hand pulling weeds in either your garden or your flower bed? Based on my conversations just the last few years, I'd argue that many of us think of herbicide use, you know, what can I spray that's going to kill this weed? It's probably the most common phrase I hear. I get calls, I get texts, emails, they want to know number one, what is it and how to kill it. But I would encourage you rather than just looking for a simple answer that involves herbicides. Let's look at a systems approach. We'll go through some of these rather quickly so we can get into the field scenarios, but I want to just kind of set the stage for what I mean by integrated pest management. In this case, we're talking about weeds, but it can mean any kind of pest like insect pest. But IPM, again, regarding weeds, it's basically an ecosystem based strategy that focuses on long term prevention of pest or their damage through a combination of techniques. And we emphasize that combination of techniques. So it's not just a herbicide solution for a particular weed. It's a logical control, manipulating habitat, modifying your practices and so on. So to start with, the first of about four components are is the preventative measures. Obviously, the name speaks for itself. These are measures that are going to prevent weed from establishing in a crop in the first place. And we're talking certified weed free seed. We're cleaning farm equipment. And I just illustrate these by the pictures here. If any of you have run a tractor bush hog through broomsedge fields this time of year, you know that the airborne wind dispersed seed or floating through the air and that will obviously catch on the front end of your tractor. Heaven forbid, it's cogongrass seed that are floating around in the spring time of the year, especially in South Alabama. We've all seen, you know, this center picture here where the grass and seed from clippings accumulate around the PTO there and on top of the bush hogs and other equipment. Here's another example of this picture on the right. This is actually a picture of myself. I'm in a sandbar field site where we were conducting research and I was absolutely covered by this sandbar all over my pants, my shirt, even my snake shaft. So I spent quite a bit of time getting these things off because I did not want to take these to another location. I know how hard it is to control some of those sandbars. So these are just some examples, preventing weeds from spreading in the first place. Secondly, let's talk cultural practices. What do I mean by cultural practices? These are basically techniques that involve maintaining field conditions such that weeds are less likely to establish. I don't want anyone to expect that if you call me up or send me an email about a particular weed species that any particular herbicide prescription is going to work when you have fields that are over-grazed or you have bare soil. So cultural practices are basically just crop rotations, grazing management, control burns, proper soil fertility. Take these pictures for example. The one on the left, again, you can't expect herbicides to perform like they are designed to do on a particular weed population when there's no biological competition there to compete with any weeds that may be emerging. I wonder that fields like this on the left that are over-grazed, those are the tight fields that we see Buttercup come in in the spring, Foxtail in the summer, and who knows what all else, what other kind of weed species we see in fields like this. So proper grazing management, I hope you're already practicing that with your cattle herd. But always thinking about leaving the proper forage height because that goes a long way by itself just having a good forage canopy to compete against a lot of these aggressive weeds. And then when you combine something like herbicides in with that good healthy forage stand that works together even better. Mechanical, you know, I think these are obvious means of controlling weeds like tillage and mowing, hand pulling. I know many of us enjoy getting on the tractor and bush hog and running a bush hog across our field to make these three, four or five foot tall weeds go down to a pretty clean pasture really quick, but I want you to understand that this comes at a cost as well. Last year, ALDOT estimated mowing cost to be somewhere in that $40 per acre range. You know, I know many of us as managers don't necessarily consider our time, monetary value or worth a lot, but it does cost, you know, to run that equipment. Not only that, you know, it's removing a lot of our desirable forages at the same time. I'm not saying that something like bush hogging doesn't have a fit. It does for sure, but it needs to be incorporated and not relied solely upon as a primary means of control because when you talk, especially perennial weeds like the brush species or dog fin or anything like that. Sure, you'll set it back or suppress it for a little while, but those perennial weeds are still coming back from roots. And so really you're spending that $40 per acre multiple times a year. Whereas if you combine that with herbicide or some other type practice, you could go, you can make your money work a lot better. Other mechanical forms, obviously a hoe works well on species like thistle. Let's not wait until thistles get this big late in the spring. I realize that these biennial plants are emerging right now in the rosette stage. And so this is just an example of a good time to use mechanical control to target species like thistle. And then lastly, obviously the chemical methods of the use of herbicides basically. And before anyone considers using chemical control, and many of you I'm sure already have sprayer systems that you utilize on your pastures, but there are several requirements. I'll say several. There are four main requirements that I like for us to keep in mind. And these are key if you're going to expect that herbicides are to perform like they should. And number one, we want to identify what the weed is. We can't prescribe any particular herbicide if we don't know what we're targeting. Next is proper herbicide selection. That's an obvious. We obviously want to calibrate our equipment. We can make sure we get the right weed. We can pick our correct herbicide, but if we're not applying it correctly and that product didn't get to the target as intended, then you've done no good. And lastly is to know your desired forage. So there are many herbicides that can do well on a particular weed species, but I wouldn't advise anybody to go spray pastore to target foxtail or Johnson grass in a tall fescue pasture. All right, so we're not going to be happy with the results from our pastore on tall fescue. That's just an example. So there are certain herbicides that are meant to be applied in certain forage species. Regarding weed identification, these are a few resources I'd just like to share with you. These are three main books that I personally keep with me all the time. I go to them regularly when it comes to at least narrowing down particular plant species that I am uncertain of. Also, there are a couple websites and apps that I use. One is Southeastern Flora. This primarily focuses on the native plants of the Southeast, but it's got a good library of pictures with scientific names there that you can go to, to at least help you narrow down. And then iNaturalist.org, that's an online website, and they have an app. I have found really good results from this. If I can take a really good picture of a particular weed and it's identifying parts from the field, I can upload those and it will give me a list, basically a short list of the possibilities for that particular plant. And it really helps me at least narrow down whatever that weed is, at least to a specific genus, if not the similar species. So those are good ones to keep in mind that I wanted to share with you. All right, now this is not by any means a complete exhaustive list of all the products available in forages, but it is most. So I show you this because what I found that is that if a producer has a sprayer equipment to begin with, if you're sitting here thinking, sure, I'm familiar with some of these herbicides, I use some of these herbicides on my place. If you spray anything at all in your forages, you're probably most familiar with at least two of these products. And you want to guess which ones. If I didn't have this list up here with what are the two main herbicides that you are probably already familiar with. It's likely to 4D and round up. Most folks at least know those two and then maybe graze on next. All right, so my point is that just because you may have tried either of those and your weeds keep coming back that doesn't necessarily mean that it can't be killed. Understand that there are many factors involved when we're talking plant physiology and the use of herbicides. You have to consider the plants life cycle. If it's a perennial or annual or by annual, you've got to consider environmental conditions. Did you mix the right amount? What's your sprayer output? Did you calibrate your sprayer? Are you applying it properly? So it's not as simple as pouring a couple cups into a tank and knowing that your tank covers X amount of acres and just heading out and spray. There's some homework that needs to be done on the front end. And proper stewardship is necessary. Once you've identified the weed, you selected your herbicide, you know your desired forage, you must be mindful of the fate of that herbicide. So in other words, it helps to have an understanding of the product. Does this herbicide have soil residual? Is it foliar active? Is it both? Is it only a pre-emergence herbicide? So, and I'm sure many of you are probably aware that much of the hay or manure from fields that are treated with Grazon next or P plus D can affect sensitive broadleaf plants even months after application. Just like the soybean in the picture, it was probably planted into an old pasture that had a history of Grazon next use. The picture on the right is a tomato plant or was a tomato plant where the landowner used mulch and either hay or manure that was treated with Grazon next and put that around his plants. When that grass material begins to break down and decompose, then that product is still within those cell walls and it eventually leaches down into the soil and it takes time for a lot of these products to degrade either through rainfall or dilution or UV degradation. So knowing what herbicides are using and stewarding it property is, it goes a long way. And please don't apply herbicides like this. Agriculture in general gets a black eye often from the general public who may not understand what we do. So we sure don't need anything like this, especially if you're near the public. In this case, you see the fines there in the in the top. Right up here in this area, these are driftable fines that are carried by the wind. In this case, the fines from 24D or dicamba drifted across the wood lot there and settled onto a neighbor's cotton field. And I can guarantee you it did not end well for that crop. So just be mindful and steward your products correctly. This is the cluster nozzle from that application. If you have any of these, I would encourage you to go throw these away and get you a better boomless tip that will put the spray where it needs to go. There are definitely better boomless tips out there than this cluster nozzle. All right, so let's talk weeds. In the time remaining, let's think about the weed issues in terms of broadleafs or grasses. In general, pasture weed control decisions are largely based on the visual thresholds and intuition. And this buttercup is a prime example. You know, we don't often think about buttercup control in our pasture until March or April in the spring time when our fields turn yellow. All right, so again, that's why I say it's largely based on visual thresholds and intuition. How many of us know that, you know, thistles are another example. I want to make you aware of some of these, you know, thistles can be treated now while they're at the rosette stage rather than waiting until the spring when they're four foot tall and hard to kill. All right. Along the same lines, buttercup thistles, other cool season annuals are already growing in most areas right now. So it bottom line, it helps to know what to expect so that you can be proactive. All right, buttercup. There are about a dozen or more species here within the state. The common are the hairy or the bulbous buttercup. Many of them are actually perennial, especially when we have mild winters. We don't get a true winter kill from those and they will come back year after year from roots, many of these species. Believe it or not, right now is not a bad time to spray if you're in the northern half of the state. Last year we conducted a trial here in North Alabama, which I'll show you here shortly. But using something as simple as one pint per acre of 2-4-D, you know, one of the two herbicides that I think we're probably most familiar with, or one pint per acre of Grazon next, it goes a long way in the fall of the year. If you understand that many of these annuals and perennials, the cool season weeds like this are already emerging. You know, there's horseweed, there's hen bit, there's chickweed, and then there's the thistle rosette right there. So understand that many of these are already coming up. And 2-4-D is cheap. You know, four to six dollars per acre is not a bad treatment at all. Whenever you can control that at the juvenile stage right now, rather than waiting until buttercup and other things are a foot tall in the spring. Grazon next is still fairly affordable at under $10 per acre right now. So this is a trial that we ran last year on the station, where we just simply demonstrated that if you if you apply in November, December, and I think we sprayed again in March with something as simple as low rates of 2-4-D, Grazon next or weed master, we have good results going into the spring and this allows our grass forage to emerge without weed competition, better and quicker in the spring. So this was an application May last year, December, mid December, and this photo was actually taken in May. So about five months after application and that rate of 2-4-D at the very least is a really cheap option. And as you can see there in the strips, it did a really good job with control. And to note with that to the use of 2-4-D at that time was really safe on a lot of our clover species, especially the established perennial clovers. So if you're concerned about that 2-4-D is a really good option. Here's one that we often see in the springtime of the year or late winter bull rush. It comes up in the low wet areas. Believe it or not, 1-4-2-4-D is by far the best treatment that I've ever found on this scourpus species. All right, apply that in February for most areas across the state and it does a really good job. You can use the ester formulation in the cool months of the year. And again, it's a pretty cheap option. The only alternative for a weed like this is to drain that soil because this bull rush, the rush species just thrives in heavy waterlogged soil with poor internal drainage. And understand too that if you control something like this in a low wet area, there's got to be something better that's got to take its place. So if you look at that bottom picture, that looks to be an area that I would probably consider controlling because I look at the adjacent forage and think, well, if that bull rush was gone, at least I could probably oversee some annual ryegrass or for long-term solutions if you're in the northern half of the state, we could at least have maybe tall fescue or Dallas grass in that site that would tolerate heavy clay or waterlogged soils. So again, 2-4-D in February, a really good treatment for that one. Dog fennel. This is a good one. Cedarweed is probably what we're most familiar with. One of the most common broadleaf weeds in permanent pastures. You know, many of us run a bush hog across fields like this once or twice a year. Pastures look really good after you mow it down when dog fennel is four to five foot tall. But what good have you really done then? All right, yeah, you've set it back, you've suppressed it, but if you bush hog, you're removing some forage as well. And since it's a perennial, it's going to come right back before the end of the summer. So if you can combine some herbicide with that, it goes a long way. All right, this, my recommendation, I really like Pickle Ram on this. I know that P plus D is a restricted use pesticide, so you need your applicator's license to use that. But in my opinion, it is much better than Grey's on Next. Grey's on Next is actually pretty weak on dog fennel. And honestly, the new Duracore is pretty weak by itself on dog fennel, even up to 20 ounces per acre. So if you're using Grey's on Next or you've already got Duracore on hand and you just have to use it, you're going to have to put something like pasture guard with it. All right, my recommendation would be to go straight weed master when the plants are young, you know, under 18 inches and actively growing. Or Grey's on P plus D, because I just think that the Pickle Ram is much more selective on this particular species. And the reason why I say wait until it gets 18 inches is because you get more herbicide translocation. So there's a ratio difference between that perennial root that's underground and what's above ground. So the more you have, in essence, the more above ground growth you have to be able to apply herbicide to the more herbicide than can then be translocated to that root for an effective keel. Here's some infield pictures of Grey's on P plus D that have been applied. This is 35 days after application and you can see the dog fennel was at least 18 inches at the time we applied this and to note for something like this a field scenario like this horse nettle is also in the mix. We had some pig weed in this situation so getting all those when they're young and actively growing is really good and effective. And plus if you can put some herbicide, excuse me fertilizer on this site after you spray as the weeds are dying. Hopefully the forages are taking advantage of increased sunlight and the resources that the weeds were getting. Here's one that I wouldn't say is widespread widespread, but I do get several calls of Brazilian vervein each year. This is an annual or a week perennial. It tends to perineate, especially through our mild winters. Grey's on Next or Duracore is exceptional on this species. I would probably catch this when it's 18 inches or less with 1.2 to 1.5 pints of Grey's on Next. It does a really good job on the verveins and similar species. Understand there are some restrictions regarding haying, seven day haying restrictions. On the label, if you look at the Grey's on Next label, which if you use any herbicides, I encourage you to read the label thoroughly. There's a 14 day waiting period before cutting. And that's simply to allow that herbicide more time to do what it's going to do within the plant. Again, back to what I was talking about. Proper herbicide stewardship with the use of Grey's on Next use caution when moving cattle from one field to another, especially if you have sensitive broadleaf plants. There's just some more pictures of the vervein. It's got a typical square stem. Thorny brush. I know many of us face briars, dewberry, blackberry, probably growing up on fence lines, coming up in permanent pastures. If you're in the black belt, for sure there are the rose species like multi-floor rose and mccartney rose. And I'd like to point out the differences here if you look at the top left. It's really good ID characteristic of multi-floor rose, Cherokee rose, and then the mccartney rose, many of which you typically see along fence lines. And in permanent pastures it can be really tough to kill. And if you think you're going to run a disc across that site, that picture there on the right of a root has been ripped up out of the ground and look it's still growing and trying to put out a shoot even without a root. So these are really aggressive plants obviously because of the perennial woody nature of its growth habit. And here are just a list of general herbicides that are, at least they have activity on a lot of these woody type brush. Keep in mind that many of these options here have good soil residual. And what I mean by that is that herbicide remains in the soil, active in the soil so that the plant can take it up through the roots. That also means that if you apply too much or in the incorrect manner, it can run downhill with surface water. So be mindful of desirable trees that may be nearby. It's important to follow the label. I'd say for just general woody brush, one of my go-tos is the remedy ultra, especially green ash. It does a really good job. Pasture guard surmount is really good as a fence line vegetation mix and especially a lot of these thorny species. That's a good list to keep in mind right there. But again, I can't stress enough, especially when you're talking the use of arsenal and Velpar and piclaram that does not need to go anywhere near where you have desirable tree species or anywhere that that can run down slope. So please read those labels. All right, the tough one. Removing grasses from grass forage. What I think is the ultimate challenge. You've got foxtails. I'm sorry to say I don't have many good answers for foxtails. Smug grass. All right. Can you tell the difference between smug grass and bahia grass? That's smug grass. That's bahia grass. They look really similar and they're hard to control. Crow foot grass. Crab grass. I think crab grass is really good grazing forage, but many people don't want it in a quality Bermuda grass system. And then broom sage. It's another good example of a perennial grass that's hard to control. And you got throw tall fescue in the mix that, you know, doesn't tolerate a lot of our herbicides that you can put in Bahia or Bermuda. Let's talk about Johnson grass. Johnson grass is an example of one, if you've got Bahia or Bermuda grass and even tall fescue, if you've got Johnson grass in this, Outrider is one that I think does a really good job of selectively controlling Johnson grass. It is, it's almost like this material was meant to be used on Johnson grass, but steward it properly. I got word from Aldot a little while back that three counties on the east central part of the state have experienced resistant Johnson grass along the rights of ways. So generally Johnson grass is most susceptible at the 18 inch stage where it's just entering that boot stage. If you can broadcast Outrider at that rate up to 1.3 ounces per acre. It does a really good job. Keep in mind with Outrider you want that herbicide to sit out there without being mowed so that that herbicide can work properly. Another good option is weed wiper especially if you've got some height separation between Johnson grass and your desirable forages. It's, it's very sensitive to glyphosate around that. All right, I group annual grasses all into one because there are so many, you know, in the summer we think about crabgrass and goosegrass, sand bear species, barnyard grass, crowfoot grass or annual foxtails. And then, and then this time of the year, what's already starting to germinate is little barley. We've got volunteer annual ryegrass coming up. Many of our brome species are six weeks fescue. All right, in forages and established permanent pastures we only have two labeled true pre-emergence options and those are Prowl, H2O and Resilon. Resilon being the newest herbicide that has just been, that has just received label this year. Prowl can be applied up to 4.2 quarts per acre. Resilon is a program that can go out at three to five ounces, fluid ounces that is per acre, not to exceed six fluid ounces in a 12 month period. And for both of these rainfall is essential. In other words, you want to make sure that when you use any pre-emergent, it has to get out on the ground before that seed starts to germinate. It has to be rainfall incorporated by rainfall before that seed starts to imbibe water. Turning to smutgrass, I know it's one that many of us face in the southern part of the state. It's very hard to control, but we have seen some success with Velpar. I know it is an expensive treatment that not many of us can utilize in our systems, but it does have activity. But I think this is one example of a grassy weed that you have to take a whole systems approach and it's multi-year, it's a multi-year process, especially if you've got thick populations. A lot of work has been done in the University of Florida system where they've looked at Velpar applications through weed wiper and looking at roundup through weed wipers. I think there is a fit. Again, you have to have some height separation there between the smutgrass stems and Bermuda behedgrass stems. So I think a roller wiper has seen some promising results in many of our systems, but again, it takes time. And this is one of those that we're currently working on more options and exploring timing and it's a really difficult one. Again, Velpar is one that is so active that needs good growing conditions to work like it's supposed to. Paspalum species, you know, I'll group these all together because they are difficult to control and the primary two I'm talking about are Dallas grass and Basie grass. All right, if you've got permanent pastures, Dallas grass is a really good forage in my opinion. But if you've got quality Bermuda grass that you're trying to grow for hay or grazing, there has been some success with the use of plateau or pastora in season but understand that this often comes with damage to our Bermuda grass as well. Basie grass is the more difficult one to control. There has been some success with the use of pastora, but again, I don't know how many people could justify the use of this whenever there is a high risk of damage to their forage. All right, so I'm beginning to look at options to use a weed wiper in these type scenarios. Again, the roller wiper, I think there is some success to be had, especially if there's some height separation there. And so we're continuing to work on that but know that right now for Basie grass, there's no good in season selective herbicide option for that. The Broomsej is another one that I'll group into that mix. You know, I've heard all my life it's, if you correct the pH, you know, you'll make the Broomsej go away. Well, that's not really the case. I've spent a lot of time working in the black belt region where we typically get soil pH is upwards of seven and a half and well this picture right here for example is in the middle of the black belt and I think the soil pH there was like 7.8. So it's not just a pH issue. I think again this is one that is a whole systems management approach to control this thing. Proper soil fertility I think is part of this thing where you've got a sample correctly and research has found that the addition of grazing and mowing with nitrogen applications have seen populations diminish. Over several years but again, it's a multi year approach. I do think weed wiper has a fit and we do continue to explore that but I think, again, a combination of managing your cutting frequency, your fertility, your grazing pressure. I think that combined with fertility and herbicide use could be a solution. We just haven't quite figured out what exactly that combination is to be most successful. And here's just a good example to be an advocate for the use of a weed wiper. Look at the height separation here. All right, so this time of the year again back to the visual clues for our weed control. We don't always know that this is out there in a problem until it shows up this time of year but brooms edge has a huge height difference between Bermuda grass behavior grass. This time of year, and as long as it's effectively growing I think something like a weed wiper could be really effective. The last one I'll touch on is Foxtail. For the longest time, the University of Tennessee has made their recommendation as one and a half ounces of pastora plus eight ounces of roundup followed by another one ounce of pastore 14 days later. And this is just in Bermuda grass fields. It's pastore will control tall fish cue and behavior grass, but know that it comes with heavy Bermuda grass stunning as well. And so that's just not a good treatment that I feel confident in even if we get 60 to 70% control of Foxtail. I just don't know how many people are willing to risk their forage for that. Some other ones that we're playing around with it are Resilon, the new one that just came out and does a flam has worked really well on the annual species that's not going to do anything for the perennial plant that's already there coming back from root. But if you can get this product out before seed germinates and include that with good forage canopy. I've seen that combination work fairly well. You know, here's an example there in the in the bottom picture of an application that was made in the fall. And, you know, we're looking at a pretty good control with the following spring when we have good forage cover. The other one is facet, al quinclorac. You can apply those at rates up to 64 fluid ounces. We've seen about three to four weeks worth of suppression from that. And if you bump up the rates to two courts, you're talking maybe 75 to 80% control for about three months. So that seems to be as at least as effective as the pastora. What what benefit we're getting with facet though is that it is a little more safe on our Bermuda grass, Bahia grass and tall fescue even so it's it's all rate dependent. So that's some other work that we're continuing to explore. There's just a list of some things that we're continuing to explore. I want to end right here with this picture that I was really impressed with. This is a bill par application made this year, April one as the not root foxtail seedlings were beginning to emerge. It's a really good job of controlling post emergence, the annual ryegrass that was up, and then it released a really good stand of that Bermuda grass forage through this hay field so I'm going to continue to explore more control for foxtail and some of these troublesome grasses. And know that if you've got any questions feel free to reach out to me. Email me or go to our website to find more information on any of our forage or forage we control recommendations. Thank you for your time.