# Pasture Weed Killer?



## downtownjr

What weed killer so you use to kill weeds in your pasture? Thistle seems to be a problem and some white top. Sprayed the thistle this past week, used the 4 wheeler and just hit each thistle individually with the hand sprayer. Did a good job, but sure they will be back. This pasture was not cared for for about the past 10 years. Slowly bringing it around as I have time and expanding it. Lots of fence building. Thanks for your suggestions.


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## OneManShow

In our area with our weeds, we have pretty good luck with a 24D based product called Unison. Our field guy recommends that we add Banvel and Aim also to broaden the coverage spectrum of the Unison


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## Vol

[quote name='downtownjr']What weed killer so you use to kill weeds in your pasture? Thistle seems to be a problem and some white top.

Early spring is the best time of year to spray pasture for thistle as it is in its early growth stage and susceptible to lower dosages of herbicides. Extensions recommend after you have had 3-4 consecutive days with temps above 60f and nights without frost (April in TN) that is a good time to spray. I have done this with great success. I use 2-4-D at that time of year and I usually use AMINE 2-4-D at that time of year. When days warm to 80f or greater I start using 2-4-D ESTER as it does not volutise as much. Also, you can use lower dosages early in the year (2pints/ac.) versus higher dosages needed later(4pints/ac.). 
2-4-D is usually much cheaper than most herbicides. One of the major keys of success with 2-4-D is to apply when you are receiving normal rainfall as most herbicides/pesticides work poorly in drought conditions. Using a surfactant along with your herbicide greatly improves its effectiveness. Also, if the application has been sprayed on the plant for four or more hours, it will not be effected by rainfall. I have found that if you are cleaning up weeds in a new area that if you spray twice(10 days apart) with 2-4-D that it will get most of the tough to kill type weeds. To kill hardcore weeds like horsenettle, bullnettle, curly dock,etc. one needs to use herbicides like Forefront etc.
Regards, Mike


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## Vol

Speaking of weeds, the following is a great site for weed identification. Really useful with great photos. Weed Identification
Regards, Mike


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## vhaby

GrazonNext, a Dow product containing aminopyralid and 2,4-D, has worked well on numerous broadleaf weeds including bull thistle spot sprayed on our place in northeast Texas. Recommendations for thistle control are to spray it in the rosette stage, but they can be hard to locate in grass pasture at that time. I sprayed them when they began bolting and had excellent success eliminating them from an 8 acre bottomland pasture, but I had to keep after them because they didn't all bolt at the same time.

GrazonNext has no grazing restrictions for lactating animals and no haying restrictions. It's maximum use rate is 2.6 pts/acre and can be used on seasonally dry wetlands.


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## Mike120

I'm a big fan of Grazon as well but I prefer the old Grazon P+D over the new GrazonNext. I used the new version last year and it didn't have the residual effect that Picloram+2,4,D gives me. This year I had some GrazinNext left over and sprayed it on one field and used P+D on another one.....Not a very scientific test but I still think the P+D gave better results.


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## scrapiron

Depending on what weeds are in the pasture. I am a big fan of Weedmaster ( 2,4,d/dicamba), aminopyralid (Milestone), and triclopyr (Remedy) and/or any combination of them. We always use a non ionic surfactant at max label rate, and at least 10 gl of conditioned water per acre sometimes as much as 25gl per acre,getting full coverage on some weeds is very important. Just have to be very careful of spray drift with all of above as I have seen them burn a crop over a mile away.

scrapiron


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## vhaby

We hired a custom sprayer to apply GrazonNext to the bermudagrass pasture. The application rate was 1.5 pt/acre, one pt less than the max rate, in the hopes that we would not have so much residual that clover germination, seeded in November, would be inhibited. We had excellent weed control of horse nettle, goat weed, berry vines, and any other broadleaf weeds, and we had excellent germination and growth of ball and arrowleaf clover seeded with ryegrass that fall.


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## johndeerefarmer

Mike120 said:


> I'm a big fan of Grazon as well but I prefer the old Grazon P+D over the new GrazonNext. I used the new version last year and it didn't have the residual effect that Picloram+2,4,D gives me. This year I had some GrazinNext left over and sprayed it on one field and used P+D on another one.....Not a very scientific test but I still think the P+D gave better results.


I agree. The only reason they came out with Grazon Next is because the patent on Grazon P+D ran out. Same thing with the new Remedy. They wanted to keep you buying their name brand products. Several companies now make a generic "grazon p+d"


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## vhaby

I can't help but agree that Grazon P+D is a better herbicide than GrazonNext when uniformly applied in a broadcast sprayer. In my case, I am spot spraying. The amount of herbicide that hits weeds when spot spraying is much greater than when broadcast spraying. I have tried P+D, and with spot spraying I have noticed some yellowing of bermudagrass with use of P+D that I don't see when using GrazonNext. Perhaps I'm holding too long on each weed, or group of weeds, but I can't afford to take too much time and still cover the pastures. Also, I have many trees on my place. The Grazon P+D label warns of spraying under tree drip lines unless you don't care whether or not you might kill the trees. I can spray up to the tree trunk when using GrazonNext with little concern about damage to the tree. Horse nettle turns over within several hours after hitting them with spot-sprayed GrazonNext at 1.75 pts with a less-than-recommended amount of surfactant in a 25 gallon tank filled with water.


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