Grass Burrs – or Field of Screams

City folks often talk about how painful it is to step on a Lego block. But Texans know real barefoot pain. Try stepping on a few grass burr seed. Even dogs and cats hate the burrs and cannot take the pain for long. Grass burrs seem to be the scourge of the pasture weeds.

After running a nail through my foot for the fifth time, Dr. Jacobi told me “Boy, its time you start wearing shoes.” Those words got me into shoes more often, but after Dad bought the Rolling W Ranch, I learned to wear shoes all the time. Our home in Houston did not have grass burrs but I got personally and painfully acquainted with them at the ranch.

Grass burr grasses are a fair forage grass for cattle until the burrs appear. Cattle will eat the grass even though it is not their favorite. But once the plant starts producing seed, they avoid it. During droughts, I have seen cattle so starved that their mouths got sore eating the plant.

Homeowners hate the grass as much as ranchers. When the seed get walked into the house, they find a spot to settle into the carpet. Then ouch! A bare foot finds it. Having a few in the yard is not much of a problem, but every year, they seem to get worse. Soon nobody wants to go out to the yard.

The Burr Facts

• Grass burrs and sand burrs are the same plant but with different names and are found throughout Texas. Considered an annual weed they can also be a short-lived perennial. There are at least four separate species, but not all are found state wide. Cenchrus incertus is the most commonly distributed and the most repeatedly cursed.

• Grass burrs thrive in nutrient- poor soils and are found frequently in sandy soils.

• You cannot rid the soil of grass burr seed without improving the soil.

• One single plant can provide as many as 8-120 new seed each year.

• Grass burr seed can wait in the soil for 14 years to germinate when conditions are right.

• New seed are brought into the area on the fur on wildlife and domestic animals. They also come on the bottom of shoes and on pants legs. Tires move the seed from pasture to pasture.

• If you have gophers, moles or voles in the lawn or pasture, you will never entirely get rid of grass burrs. But this is not a reason to kill gophers with toxic poisons.

• Soil compaction is generally the cause for seed proliferation in soils with higher clay and loam content.

• Chemical fertilizers cannot provide a fertile soil or beneficial soil nutrients as they kill the microbes that improve the soil. Soil fertility does not come in a bag, it develops over time. It comes from proper lawn or pasture maintenance.

• Chemical herbicides may kill the grass burr plant, but it won’t kill the seeds in the soil. Chemical herbicides will kill the beneficial soil microbes. Herbicides are also toxic to pets and grazing animals. Some herbicides will prevent succession of desirable pasture plants (up to three years) by killing the seed and harming the soil. These herbicides can stop winter grazing grasses or cover crop seeds from germinating. Using herbicides increases the number of grass burrs.

• Digging grass burr plants from the ground opens up the soil to sunlight so weed seed or new grass burrs can germinate. But it does give some satisfaction for killing the plant.

• The best way to remove the plant is by pulling the stems and leaves toward the center of the plant, grabbing the whole plant near the roots and ripping it from the ground.

• The shorter the grass is mowed or grazed; the more grass burrs will grow. Shorter mowing or grazing opens the soil to light for seed germination and creates more tillers.

• Bare soil tends to grow more grass burrs.

• Continuous grazing and overgrazing increases the likelihood of grass burrs.

• It is better to have grass burrs than bare soil as the plant cools the soil, reduces soil compaction, reduces soil erosion and contributes some to soil improvement.

• Ignoring the problem does not make the grass burrs go away.

Part two of Grass Burrs will tell you how to fix the problem. Be sure to buy two newspapers. One to keep and one to share with a friend.

David E. Will is a local rancher in Fayette County. He can be reached at (830) 6299876.