Weeds to the Rescue

My best teachers always said, “Study nature. When we work with Nature and not against nature, things go better.” My latest Nature observation came when I was cleaning cattle troughs. There are three concrete cattle troughs on our ranch. Since my cattle do not drink from ponds, I clean the troughs after each pasture rotation. Recently I started to clean the two concrete troughs in the corral. They were totally dry, so I use a broom and shovel (as a dust pan) to clean them.

The third trough is located in a pasture below an oak tree. It always seems to have water in it. I usually bail out the water before I clean this trough. Even though the cattle had moved on from all three troughs at the same time, the oak tree trough will have water in it days later. The shade and wind protection keeps the water from evaporating as fast.

The real “ah ha” moment was when I walked into the pasture to examine the grass. It had been close to two months without rain. A few cracks had begun to appear in the soil. I was looking at dry spots and spots where grass was not brown. Almost all of the spots where the grass was still green were under the shade of tall weeds.

This should not surprise anyone. The weeds offered shade and wind protection that blades of grass in open sun didn’t get. Cattle looking for a bite of grass prefer a green grass over brown straw. While some of the pasture was brown, the areas under the weeds offered the cattle a better meal.

Bare ground was more visible under the short Bermuda grass where there were no weeds. Thicker Bermuda grass without weeds was also greener than the short Bermuda grass. The cover of the grass, like the oak tree, provides shade and wind protection from soil-water evaporation. The thicker Bermuda grass is grazed until it is thin and then bare ground and drying becomes a bigger problem.

During the drought of 2011, the only grass to survive in our sandy soil was next to or under weeds. Even starving cattle wouldn’t reach for the grass blades next to the stinging nettle plants. The pastures regenerated from the buried grass seed and the small grass remnants near the weeds.

Nature regenerates soil with seeds and weeds. Weeds are the pioneer species that rapidly grow to cover and protect the soil; this protection gives the grass seeds time to grow. It is living plants that feed the soil microbiome to regenerate healthy soil. When there is a diversity of living plants, regeneration is faster than a monoculture. Nature hates bare soil and will do its best to cover it with plants. Weeds, with their bounty of seed and great adaptability, are generally the first to arrive to fill the void created by bare, hot, dry soil.

Spraying for weeds often defeats the work of Nature. Weeds are the synergy that returns pastures back to grassland. Given enough time and proper animal management, a weed patch will turn into a wildflower meadow and eventually a native grassland with very few weeds.

My philosophy is this: never mow in a drought. This year, I mowed strips of land throughout the year trying to find the best date for weed control by mowing. Before the late summer drought started, I mowed half a pasture of dove weed and left the rest for control.

Under the mown areas, thin Bermuda grass with no weeds, the ground is split open in several places. Under thin Bahia grass with no weeds, there are smaller ground splits, but the Bahia is brown like the Bermuda grass. Under thick Bermuda with few if any weeds, there are smaller cracks. Under Bahia grass with few if any weeds there are even smaller cracks. The thick Bahia seems to have fewer weeds than the thick Bermuda.

The real eye opener is this: where the weeds are taller and thicker, there are almost no cracks under thick Bermuda grass and cracks are difficult to find under the Bahia grass. When I irrigate the areas with thick grass and weeds, the Bahia grass is the first to recover, giving the cattle a mouthful of grass. Bermuda grass with no weed cover that is watered identically is still short of a mouthful of grass. Draw your own conclusions.

I cannot compare a pasture that has had weeds removed by herbicides to my pastures, because I don’t use herbicides. I can see the effects of pastures near me where herbicides were used to kill weeds in Bermuda grass and to kill Bahia as a weed. None of those pastures look healthy. They all look brown. All have lots of ground cracks. But they are either hay pastures or have different cattle management styles, so it’s not an apples to apples comparison.

Whenever the current drought ends, weeds will fill in the voids. Some grass will also return. It will creep out from its protected areas below the weeds. The grass may seed a new crop or provide a rhizome for new growth next spring.

As for me, I will be planting more Bahia grass in my voids. Hopefully this will give me better grass and less open ground if there is another dry spell next year. We have had quite a few dry periods over the last four years. I will continue my grass mowing experiment and let you know the results.

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.