# Extra cutting to avoid foxtail?



## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

Foxtail always craps up 2 or 3 of my fields and I didn't want to pay to spray for the pre emergent. Plus it ain't free to apply. 
Although fuel use/time is worth something, I wondered if I'd do better doing an "interim" cutting now, to avoid the seed heads that will be here in another week or 2? 
Yield would be low, but it would make for some pretty hay. 
Anyone else cut before foxtail? Did you still get foxtail in the 3rd cutting? Or does cutting before seed heads wipe it out?


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## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

I cut second cutting in the field that i have foxtail in about 15 days ago. Had to cut the field a little earlier than I wanted to as one plant had seed head and many others were coming. With the rain and heat we have had over the last two weeks I had to nuke it thurs to keep it from going to seed again along with the crab grass. the other grasses, mainly orchard and fescue were not ready to cut yet. I had planned to nuke it anyway to replant solid og around Sept 1. Now I will have to spray it twice. So the short version is I think even if you cut it now, it will come back and produce seed heads this season. It is very persistent and it loves the weather it has been getting.


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

I just cut some 2nd cutting new seeding last week to avoid the seed heads making seeds. Next year it shouldn't be there. Now I've had that grass have rain every day for the last week. But it still probably was worth it to make sure I don't get that seed next year.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Depends on how many times it has gone to seed in the past. Seed for one, weed for seven is what my grandfather used to say.

I know you don't have a use for it, but I like to cut anything that has weeds, bale it wet, then wrap it for cow feed. If you have any seeds they should stay with the crop if baled wet.


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

Hayman1 said:


> I cut second cutting in the field that i have foxtail in about 15 days ago. Had to cut the field a little earlier than I wanted to as one plant had seed head and many others were coming. With the rain and heat we have had over the last two weeks I had to nuke it thurs to keep it from going to seed again along with the crab grass. the other grasses, mainly orchard and fescue were not ready to cut yet. I had planned to nuke it anyway to replant solid og around Sept 1. Now I will have to spray it twice. So the short version is I think even if you cut it now, it will come back and produce seed heads this season. It is very persistent and it loves the weather it has been getting.


So you think if I cut the foxtail now, just before going to seed, it will regrow and produce seeds anyway???
I figured if you cut it, then it wouldn't produce seed heads. Or at least not nearly as many..
Nothing but rain up here, BTW.


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## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

I think so, I sure saw them coming back after both first and second cutting. You might as well cut it now and take another cutting in sept if you topdress.


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## RockyHill (Apr 24, 2013)

even weekly lawn mowing doesn't kill the foxtail we have here. . . . for example I mowed this on 8/5 and this is from 8/7

Shelia


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

RockyHill said:


> even weekly lawn mowing doesn't kill the foxtail we have here. . . . for example I mowed this on 8/5 and this is from 8/7
> 
> Shelia
> 
> ...


HAHA, and there you go. When switching pastures I'll carry a Fiskars tree pruner with me and cut the thistles affright at the ground, eventually they just branch out and keep growing. When I finally get time as the cows get moved off one paddock any thistles get hosed with 2-4D. I have a friend that does the organic dairy thing, he pays one guy to do nothing but bush hog paddocks, some of them have some thistles of considerable girth but only 3-4 inches tall.


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## RockyHill (Apr 24, 2013)

mlappin said:


> HAHA, and there you go. When switching pastures I'll carry a Fiskars tree pruner with me and cut the thistles affright at the ground, eventually they just branch out and keep growing. When I finally get time as the cows get moved off one paddock any thistles get hosed with 2-4D. I have a friend that does the organic dairy thing, he pays one guy to do nothing but bush hog paddocks, some of them have some thistles of considerable girth but only 3-4 inches tall.


Jeff & I had been fighting thistles on our farms before we met (unbeknownst to me was the fact that a woman who would work to eliminate thistles was really important to him). Here there are two different varieties. The earlier ones sometimes will die with just being cut off but the late ones have to dig out the roots, if not they just come back really bushy. So there is a shovel on the atv, on the mower, if we find a thistle and don't have a shovel, we make a special trip to dig that evil plant. Jeff says no matter how busy he is mowing, if he sees a thistle he stops and digs it. In the rare case that one has any viable bloom, the bloom gets cut off, put in a sack, brought to the house and put in the stove and of course the roots dug out.

Shelia


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## Ray 54 (Aug 2, 2014)

The belief that weed seeds will not grow after 7 years is a wives tale in my ever so humble opinion. I would put it closer to 7000 years in my experience. But some of the new expensive weed killers like Milestone have done wonders on some yellow star thistles.

Still bothers me to see weeds show up in new areas and people cannot be bothered to fight them until they are well established. One or a dozen are not enough to be bothered with after you try to tell them how bad they will soon be. I have never had as bad a problem with grasses as broad leafs but that dose not mean that a grass will not come to bedevil me yet.


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## PaMike (Dec 7, 2013)

My foxtail is already in seed here. You sure you dont want to hit some fields with prowl next year? It really works...I mowed a field tonight that I had sprayed in March. Only foxtail in it was at the corners and undersome trees where I hadnt sprayed...


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

PaMike said:


> My foxtail is already in seed here. You sure you dont want to hit some fields with prowl next year? It really works...I mowed a field tonight that I had sprayed in March. Only foxtail in it was at the corners and undersome trees where I hadnt sprayed...


Yeah, maybe.


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