Weed Control Speeds North Carolina Drought Recovery

Removing weedy competition solidifies new grass stand.

It's not a lesson anyone really wants, but Larry Baxter learned how to recover a pasture from drought, armyworms and weeds; make it better than it was before the drought; and do it in less than three years.

Of course, it starts with the end of the drought.

In normally moist, western North Carolina, Larry Baxter and his son, Brent, sold a third of their commercial cow herd in 2002, after four years of drought. Their fescue-orchardgrass-clover pastures near Cherryville were in sorry shape.

"Then, to add insult to injury, fall armyworms and white grubworms almost killed all the grass," Baxter says.

But as rains returned that fall, Baxter used a sod-seeding drill to reseed fescue in all his pastures. "We got a good stand of grass," he says. "But with the grass came an abundance of weeds."

Henbit, chickweed, thistles and, later, dogfennel (cypressweed, summer cedar) "and weeds I've never seen," showed up in dense populations, Baxter says. With the weed competition, he worried whether the grass seedlings would survive.

Baxter called Dow AgroSciences Range & Pasture Specialist Bill Clemmons to see how soon after seeding he could spray with Grazon^® P+D herbicide. Clemmons recommended spraying after the fescue - or any perennial grass - is well-established, as indicated by vigorous growth and a well-developed secondary root system, usually 45 to 60 days after germination.

Baxter and his new stand weathered the winter. "That spring, we sprayed for winter weeds when the thistles just started to bolt, and we relied on the residual for summer weeds," he says. He applied Grazon P+D at the labeled rate of 3 pints per acre.

Weed control and clover
At that rate, Grazon P+D provides soil residual activity to control many weeds that germinate for weeks after spraying.
The plan worked, and spring 2003 was "a perfect grass-growing season," Baxter says.

"We did the same thing in spring 2004," he continues. "We cleaned up all the weeds, and we killed all the clover."

Indeed, clover is as susceptible to the herbicide as most broadleaf weeds. But clover can be replaced. In spring 2005, Baxter overseeded clover on about half his 350 pasture acres. "We got a perfect stand," he says.

Baxter's forage program was back. It's been a good one, and he's making it better.

"This is basically a fescue operation," he says. "Fescue is not a perfect grass for feed, but it's perfect in the Piedmont of North Carolina for persistence. We try to figure out how to use it.

"Our goal is to get down to 60 days of winter feeding with accumulated fescue and overseeded wheat or rye."

Winter feed
Stockpiled fescue will usually carry Baxter's cows from mid-December to mid-January. He can use the pastures overseeded with wheat by about March 10.

To stockpile fescue, Baxter typically pulls cattle off and gives selected pastures a shot of nitrogen fertilizer in late August or early September. He adds phosphate and potash as needed according to soil test.

In fall 2005, he overseeded wheat in other pastures for early spring grazing. For hay, Baxter likes to overseed some pastures in February with oats.

"When we overseed, our habit has been to add some orchardgrass to dilute the fescue toxicity," he says. Without dilution, it's possible a summer buildup of a fungus in the fescue could cause rough hair coats, poor gains and lower conception rates in cattle. With management, Baxter has avoided that in his cattle.

As early spring growth outpaces livestock demand, Baxter harvests hay from his cereal-overseeded pastures. He cuts about a quarter of his pastures for hay every year, using different pastures from year to year. "We cut hay only once a year from a pasture," he says. "We'll get 2 tons of hay per acre."

Most of Baxter's pastures now are about 35 acres, but they're about to get smaller. He's started crossfencing.

"We're trying to get our pastures cut down to 15 to 18 acres for single-bull units of 35-cow herds," he says. "They'll use four pastures each; two with clover and two straight grass.

"I'm satisfied that with rapid rotation, you could grow more grass per acre. But I don't want to have to move cows every day. My son and I are the labor. He has another job, and this keeps a semiretired old man busy," Baxter says with a smile.

Rebuilding the herd
While his forage program is back and getting better, Baxter's cow herd is rebuilding slowly. It's been a closed herd for 25 years, with only outside Angus and Hereford bulls brought in. After reducing the herd in 2002, the Baxters decided not to buy replacements to rebuild.

"I think a closed herd keeps the cattle adapted to your area," he says. "I think there's more fescue tolerance in some lines of cattle."

So Baxter buys bulls only, looking for estimated progency differences (EPDs) for moderate milk and good weaning and yearling weights. He'll sell his steers weighing 610 to 630 pounds weaned at eight months of age. "That's about as much as we can sell as a calf," he says. "Much bigger than that and we'd have to run them up to yearling weight, about 800 pounds."

Baxter uses a 90-day breeding/calving season, though most of the cows calve in the early part. Friends have suggested he could tighten that season, but he resists. "We'll have no more than one or two open cows out of 130 to 135 brood cows," he says. "If we have a late calver, we can sell the pair."

His eyes twinkle as he continues.

"Through experience, we have found that a late calf consistently brings more than no calf."

It's another lesson he probably didn't set out to learn.