Money Well Spent

Spending money on things like mowing, weed killers and pesticides can make the land look amazing, but would that money be better spent on improving the soil? This year, I have seen a number of chemical fertilizer trucks and spray rigs applying both solid and liquid products to farmland. And while the land will look great for around six weeks, the effects soon wear off.

Weeds reappear, plants lose their green color and plant growth slows. Soils become hard as rock and water infiltration slows to a dribble. Did the chemicals have something to do with the lack of luster or did nature just take control? Or could it be a combination of both.?

Herbicides and fungicides are some of the most used pesticides. Herbicides kill weeds and fungicides kill fungus. The Latin root for “-cide” mean “to kill” or “to cut”. It’s use in various English words to indicate the act of killing or destroying something specific, like homicide.Anything with “cide” on the end of the name is a product meant to kill. Pesticides kill.

More than one farmer I met at Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association conferences has told me that they were tired of spending money on killing things. Their business was to grow things, not kill things. So, they quit putting money in products that kill and started putting their money into things that improved the soil. They also quit worrying about killing weeds and started learning how to manage to prevent weed growth.

I get a lot of calls this time of the year when grass burs return to pasture land that was treated with the latest weed killers. Ranchers hate the sight of false ragweed, nightshade plants and grass burs. These three weeds seem to be the blight of chemical ranchers. Not only do the weeds look unsightly, but they also irritate the rancher more than the cattle. The weeds take over land and stop the desirable grass from competing. Or do they?

I was taught, “You get what you manage for.” If you manage your land for weeds, you get weeds. If you manage for grass, you get grass. Simple. If you thought killing weeds is management, you might consider spending your money more wisely.

Managing weeds with proper grazing management and adding organic fertilizers and/or soil supplements will do more to manage grass burs and many other weeds than any spraying or mowing. Grass burs hate fertile organic soils. Cattle love fertile organic soils. Seems like a win-win. With healthy soil, you don’t need to spray every year for grass burs. And you don’t need to subject yourself to the toxins in the chemicals. Organics have a longer lasting effect than chemicals on grass burs and they are much better for your cattle and family.

Adding organics to the soil will also stop nightshade plants, both those with stickers and those without. When the soil is less compact, water infiltrates into soil that is not rock hard and grass roots find more soil to explore. When that happens, nightshade plants begin to disappear.

Organics will not get rid of all weeds, but cattle tend to eat more weeds when organic matter is higher in the soil. Weeds are often eaten when young, before they mature. The uneaten weeds have to compete with dense grass.

When applying organics and properly managing cattle rotations does not work, mowing in a timely manner can reduce some weed pressure. But mowing is costly and it compacts soil. Mowing when weeds get taller than the grasses may be what is needed. Removing the tops of grass by less than half while removing more than 50% of the weed tops can produce good results. This however does nothing to kill or suppress grass burs but does help reduce dove weed and a few others.

Mowing at the proper time is both a skill and an art. Grasses should not be mowed during a drought no matter how bad the weed pressure unless you can irrigate the mowed land. Mowing too early means weeds will be slightly suppressed while mowing too late may actually double the weed seed production.

But for my money, I would rather stick with organics and manage cattle grazing than put risky toxic chemical down. Those toxins will end up in the cattle, in your home and in your body. I really don’t want someone to eat the meat of the animals I grow to end up sick because I could not stand to look at a few weeds.

Weeds, by the way, have been shown to actually grow more beef and grass when cattle eat them young. The more we learn about weed diversity and its management, the healthier our pocket books become. Perhaps we should redefine what we mean by a weed. A new definition could mean those plants cattle will not eat and we cannot manage.

David E. Will is a local rancher and consultant. He can be reached at 830-629-9876 or by email at dwill207@satx.rr.com.