dodgeguy71

Ok, first sorry this is so long........

Here is my situation. I've had goats in my acre field for about 6-7 years now. I have another smaller field, maybe .5 acres I put them in once in awhile but mostly in the big field. For the last year I've had pigmy goats, eat less, etc. Basically they are here to keep the field mowed down, it's a miserable pain in the backside to mow it and it usually kills lawnmowers pretty quickly. I can't bush hog cause my leach beds are out there somewhere and the last guy that owned the house had a dozer come out and do some work and ended up replacing the leach beds....good for me bad for him.

Anyhow, Last year in the spring I started noticing this plant, purple mint, beefsteak and whatever other variations of this pain in the butt are. It was pretty bad last year. The goats won't eat it, regardless of what folks think they won't touch it and if they do, they'll likely die. Had two mistery deaths in some newborns last year and thinking that the purple mint may be the culprit. Friends around here say their cattle won't even touch it, herefords and angus.

What I did last year was weed wacked the stuff before it flowered, sprayed with total elimination spray and even mixed some with diesel fuel and spray cause it seemed like everytime I would spray a stray rain cloud would land right over my place and wash what I had just done off.

Also last year I bought several pounds of fescue and white clover, in the areas I have that laid out, especially where the clover is thick there is little sign of the purple mint, maybe 1-2 here and there but not like in places where the mint has choked everything out. I've been out yesterday and today weed wackin' and mowing to knock this stuff down but now I am wondering if I should just buy a 50lb of white clover and just cover the field in the hopes in will take hold and choke out the mint? Should I mix some fescue with it. I know the goats love that stuff for sure and the clover seems to do good and slowing the mint.

I've thought about spraying the whole field but don't want to kill off everything. I'm going to spot treat in places but I guess I'm just looking for pointers from you farmers out there. Something that would grow fast to block out the mint, something the goats will eat etc. One guy suggested burning the field but I don't want to be the next big news story circulating around the country.

Any ideas, help would be appreciated. Oh yeah, the soil, rocky worthless piece of dirt, although the fescue and clover I planted last year seems to be doing well. Also on a pretty steep slope. Thanks again,

Shawn

badme

I am not a farmer but, why can't you brush hog over the leach bed? I would assume that you are not using a bulldozer to brush hog with. I have a 30hp john deere tractor and run over the leach bed all the time. My mow guy comes in with a 72 inch mow deck and mows my 2 acres in 20minutes and charges me $35.00. The guy that put in my leach bed ran his bulldozer over it to spread the top soil. That was ten years ago and it is still fine. I do not think I would run a bulldozer over it again, but a small tractor with a brush hog would be fine.

RAMRODD

Could you post a picture??

There are lots of sprays you can use that won't kill the grass.

The best time to kill a weed is just before winter. The hardest time to kill a weed is in the spring.

Jeff in TD

Not something we see on the left coast. Have a look at this.

http://na.fs.fed.us/fhp/invasive_pla...teak-plant.pdf

http://www.utextension.utk.edu/publi...files/W135.pdf

I would guess Curtail might be something that would kill it, but not the grass? Mainly used on canadian thistle, but seems to knock down most broadleaf plants without killing grasses...

RAMRODD

the first link above^^^ said you can use glyphosate, Don't that kills everything. Curtail M, Harmony extra would possibly be a good spray to use that won't kill the grass.

A good place to get information is from your local county agent. They should be abel to recomend a spray that works for your area. Your county may also have a weed board that will go in and spay the weeds for you and cost share the chemical with you.

Jeff in TD

Yeah, if I recall that's basically the stuff in Roundup.

I agree about getting a hold of the county or state about what to spray.

I'm no expert (or farmer) but did a whole lot of spraying and weed control working summers when I was in school.

MOAGGIE

I am not sure exactly what your weed is but if you can seed in clover it will help choke it out. I have used a mix of roundup and Brush Killer(2-4-D) in a spot sprayer to take out problem areas. Just reseed as soon as you can if you have a big area. In a worst case, you could take an empty feed sack, trash bag and go out and dig up the weeds so it will prevent any more seeds dropping to the ground or letting birds carry off the seeds.

jp8819

We have used a product called ally you can spray it over fescue and it will not hurt it but will kill broad leaf weeds so if you have any clover it will kill it as well. Here is a link to it.
http://www2.dupont.com/Production_Ag...roduct=ALLY+XP

dodgeguy71

Thanks for all the info. I'll probably call the ag guys tomorrow and inquire. This weekend I spent most of it down there with the mower and weed wacker. Nothing is budding yet so I'm not flingin' seeds everywhere. But holy cow, under the tall stuff is short stuff, under the short stuff is shorter stuff. Miserable plant.....