# Horse nettle



## Cmm (Jun 5, 2016)

I sprayed some horse nettle in a hay field a week ago
It's dying and showed signs of it day 1 .

Question

As the plant dies will the stickers on the plant soften and dissipate with the plant or is this hay gonna have stickers in it?
Rendering it useless for horse hay?

I sprayed it in flower stage as recommended.


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## VA Haymaker (Jul 1, 2014)

IMHO - it will have the thorns on it when you bale.

What did you spray it with?

As far as not being horse hay (again IMHO), maybe if you are selling high dollar hay, i.e. north of $6 per bale, then maybe a disqualifier - depending on how polluted the hay is with it. I don't believe there is truely "weed free" hay, there is always some kind of weed or undesirable in a bale of hay, though relatively speaking maybe very small amount - but "pure weed free hay".......

The other thing is - as I understand it, horses will pick the hay. As was explained to me and from some reading (I don't own a horse so have no first hand knowledge), unless the owner just starves the horse until they eat every last bite of hay - vs. free feed, they will pick over a piece of horse nettle, milkweed, etc. But again, that's some of what I've been told and read - take that with a grain of salt.

If you are peddling $3 and $4 dollar hay and there are some weeds in it, including a few pieces of horse nettle, let the buyer know that their "horse" hay is priced to reflect the content/quality. Buy it at your own risk or find someone else and be prepared to shell out much more $'s for "weed free horse hay".

Good luck,

Bill


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## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

Nope, won't dissipate or soften. But, unless you had wall to wall horsenettle, it isn't that bad and horses will eat every leaf of second cutting hay and leave the milkweed, hemp dogbane and horse nettle plants. Most second cutting grass hay has at least some in it. I would not worry about it. If you make good hay and it has good color and aroma, it will sell fine.


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## 506 (Mar 22, 2016)

I agree with Bill. The way I tend to phrase it is I don't think very many people can afford to buy 100% certified weed free hay. The cost to get there is prohibitive in my opinon.

I own horses. Fortunately, my girls are not picky. In fact, my big mare has got to be part goat. She will eat almost anything. If the horse is not starving it will pick through the bale. If it doesn't smell right or taste right the horse will simply not eat it. At least that is what I see with my girls.

So, to get to CMM's question - The thorns are not going to disappear if the plant dies. If there are areas of the pasture that you know are really bad, pull those bales out as selling them will potentially do harm to your business. A occasional plant shouldn't be that big of deal to most reasonable buyers.


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## Cmm (Jun 5, 2016)

Thank you guys
I am a little gun shy as I had a customer who has alpacas buy from me last year

They didn't say a word all year but called me when hay was ready and ask if my hay would have briars in it this yr

Caught me off guard and he told me his hay last yr he could not feed because he found a sticker bush in it

I knew there was a little horse nettle in it. I just told him I would replace them

Kinda of ticked me off he waited 8mo to tell me

It's not a lot I just know he didn't have horse nettle in every bale but I had to replace 40

I won't do business w them anymore but don't want to deal with it


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## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

CMM-I have only had one deal with a llama or alpaca person and she was a flake. From what I have heard the make horsey women look like saints. Really, one sticker bush. Check her paddocks, bet it won't take long to find some growing.


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## Tater Salad (Jan 31, 2016)

Hayman1 said:


> CMM-I have only had one deal with a llama or alpaca person and she was a flake. From what I have heard the make horsey women look like saints. Really, one sticker bush. Check her paddocks, bet it won't take long to find some growing.


To that point , I have one customer on the "buttercups kill" bandwagon (just a ploy to get cheap hay) and her paddocks are so bad you could drop a roundup bomb on them and wouldn't put a dent in it !!!!


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## Cmm (Jun 5, 2016)

I sprayed grazon next as I was afraid chaparral would yellow my orchard grass pretty bad

I had a local ag consultant talk me out of chaparral .

Not sure the grazon next will get it


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## Cmm (Jun 5, 2016)

Biggest flake I ran across was a stinking ass lady who had 60 rabbits. She smelt just like rabbit per

She buys orchard grass . She wanted to know where I grow orchard grass

Quickly I replied mostly in the dirt but I will come up in the back of my truck , around where we fill seed hopper and around where we load hay but it does do a lot better in dirt

lol same rabbit lady ask me one day what a bale weighed.

Said I know exactly for sure what it weighs . She said you do?
I said yea they all weigh exactly the same

She said noway that's true!

I said it weighs exactly $8 worth. That's what it weighs


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