# New hay field overrun with weeds. My solution (video included). Now what?



## tmac196 (Aug 26, 2014)

We still have not performed our first cutting here in SE Michigan due to record, frequent rainfall which began on May 31st and has not let up long enough to get our fields dried out. As a consequence, my freshly seeded hay field has been overrun by weeds (Lambs Quarters and a species I have yet to identify), some of which are not recommended for our forage target, horses.

Each day I grew more anxious watching the weeds tower over the alfalfa and grass seedlings, flower and then form seed pods. Knowing that we will be unable to cut the field in the near future, I drove straight in with my bush hog raised to 18 inches and chopped as many of them down as I could.

Video here:






The are significant volumes of alfalfa hidden among the weeds and these have been revealed, but are difficult to see in the video. The grasses are, predictably for an early April seeding, lagging behind. I am in need of feedback as to the wisdom of this act. Short of a weed wiper (which no one has in my neck of the world and according to my Co-op, "Nobody uses them thangs anymore"), what else could I have done?


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

Sometimes you just do what you can... or do what ya gotta do...

We had a situation much like yours back when I was row cropping... think it was back in the late 80's... Just rained and rained and the cotton went crazy. Cotton will get "rank" and grow too fast, and never go into fruiting mode from vegetative mode. We were having SUCH a crappy year that the boss (Grandma) didn't know whether or not it'd even make a crop, and didn't want to spend the money on hiring a plane to spray growth regulator (Pix) on it... so she told me to do an old trick they used to do in the old days when she was a kid...

Great grandpa "B" used to make his kids "top" the corn after the silks dried... basically this involved handing every kid a butcher knife and putting them on a row of corn, and have them walk to the other end of the field, cutting every stalk off above the ear. He said topping the corn increased yields back then...

SO, having nothing better to do and needing to do something (cheap), I put a 6 foot bush-hog on the 3 point and cranked the turnbuckle in all the way to get as much height out of it as I possibly could, and fell into the field and started shredding the tops out of the cotton, just like you did with your hay field... neighbors thought I was nuts and it looked like h3ll when I got through, BUT...

It worked... the cotton, instead of adding more nodes and increasing the internode length, and staying in the vegetative phase, the crop bushed out, closed the middles, and started blooming like crazy. Made an excellent crop.

So, just goes to show, sometimes it's better to be crazy-- crazy like a fox... 

Later! OL JR 

PS. If you need a weed wiper, google "Spiedel Weed Wiper"... we used to have one when we were row cropping and it was the best wick-style applicator we ever used...


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## ARD Farm (Jul 12, 2012)

What happened to the hood on that NH? I know, it's up at Nagy's gettin g bondoed.....

Mine looks as bad as yours btw. I'm just going to cut it and bale it, if, it ever stops raining long enough. We got precip again today, you probably did too....


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Thems some serious weeds.......


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## Tim/South (Dec 12, 2011)

somedevildawg said:


> Thems some serious weeds.......


Yep! The weeds got a good foot hold.

I am not sure what else could be done other than just cut and bale and let the critters pick through it.


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## Grateful11 (Apr 5, 2009)

We sprayed 5 acres of soybeans and millet with 2,4 D, a quart to the acre, last Sat. that's being taking over by pigweed. We knew it would kill the soybeans but we're just trying to salvage to millet. Like my wife said if they could put the genetics of pigweed into something useful we might have something that would grow no matter how dry it is. If it kills everything we'll just have to replant something, probably some more S-S BMR.


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## tmac196 (Aug 26, 2014)

ARD Farm said:


> What happened to the hood on that NH? I know, it's up at Nagy's gettin g bondoed.....
> 
> Mine looks as bad as yours btw. I'm just going to cut it and bale it, if, it ever stops raining long enough. We got precip again today, you probably did too....


  . I took the hood off of my old Ford to repaint it. It's hanging in my shop in primer ready for wet sanding.


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## Hay Commander (Jul 16, 2014)

I did the same thing 2 weeks ago!! Those Fields look great!! My problem, like I mentioned in the "Johnson Grass" post is I haven't been able to get back in the fields to do the rest because of it being to muddy! Now most of the un-mowed 60 ac has gone to seed!


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

Speaking of weeds and spraying, if I spot spray roundup on some big weeds growing sparsely in a field, is there a safe wait period until I can cut? 
The thing I notice with herbicides is yes, they work, but usually the dead weed is still getting in the crop. 
I have read that some weeds are just as toxic dead as they are alive. 
At that point, it almost seems like the only thing you can do is hire migrant workers to pick the damn things out by hand (I am my own migrant worker- I picked out hundreds of horse nettle plants this week lol)


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## tmac196 (Aug 26, 2014)

Here are some better pictures of these weeds. I think the tall one is Pigweed (Lambs Quarters), I am not sure what the one which appears like a fern is.


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## bfletch7441 (Jun 25, 2015)

The fern looking stuff is ragweed.

Ben


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

JD3430 said:


> Speaking of weeds and spraying, if I spot spray roundup on some big weeds growing sparsely in a field, is there a safe wait period until I can cut?
> The thing I notice with herbicides is yes, they work, but usually the dead weed is still getting in the crop.
> I have read that some weeds are just as toxic dead as they are alive.
> At that point, it almost seems like the only thing you can do is hire migrant workers to pick the damn things out by hand (I am my own migrant worker- I picked out hundreds of horse nettle plants this week lol)


However long it takes you to go back for the mower. I've seen guys kill off an alfalfa stand and then immediately (well, give the roundup a few hours to work) mow it for forage. Whether it's wise, I don't know. But it can be done.


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

8350HiTech said:


> However long it takes you to go back for the mower. I've seen guys kill off an alfalfa stand and then immediately (well, give the roundup a few hours to work) mow it for forage. Whether it's wise, I don't know. But it can be done.


That would be kind of stupid. Sounds like a waste of roundup and time.


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

JD3430 said:


> That would be kind of stupid. Sounds like a waste of roundup and time.


But it works. It still dies. Same as getting a rain a few hours after you spray. The damage is already done to the plant.


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

tmac196 said:


> Here are some better pictures of these weeds. I think the tall one is Pigweed (Lambs Quarters), I am not sure what the one which appears like a fern is.


Just my worthless .02:
I would cut that crap down or spray it strongly and get rid of it. Man that's some nasty looking ragweed. Only downside is if you cut, it will spread the seeds. Can you do a strong broadleaf spray? Use Cimmaron, clarity and 24D


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## stack em up (Mar 7, 2013)

My opinion is to mow it with a straight sickle bar, no conditioner. Will lay it down flat, and spread seeds less. Roll it up and burn the bales if you cant get it dry.


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## Hugh (Sep 23, 2013)

Cut it to 3 inches and get it off the field before the seed heads mature on the weeds.


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## tmac196 (Aug 26, 2014)

Looks like we will have our first cutting today 8 weeks behind schedule. We'll see how it looks in a bale.


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## ARD Farm (Jul 12, 2012)

You have until tuesday. If you get bored you can come up and help me. I'll put you in a nice air conditioned orange tractor and I'll sit at home in the ac, sipping iced tea.

Glad I bought that tedder. I'm using it today, well, this evening.


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## tmac196 (Aug 26, 2014)

Update:

I just wanted to post two pictures of the field as it stands currently. These were taken 4 weeks after the field was cut and baled for the first time in late July.. The alfalfa is doing well and very few weeds can be seen. The grasses are very sparse. I harbor no delusions that my problem is solved, only that it appears to have made for a better "second" cutting in a few weeks. I will need to wait until next season to see how heavy the weed pressure will be.


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## Hawk40 (Jun 28, 2015)

Looks like it did the trick.
that's why I switched to rr


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