# Sand Burr



## mulberrygrovefamilyfarm

Anybody ever try to graze their cattle in an area with sand burrs? I have some ground that has been sitting idle for a while and it has sand burr mixed in with other grassy weeds. Wondering how cow/calf pairs might react to them?


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## swmnhay

I have a 3 acre pen that has some sandburrs.The cattle just eat the grass around them.Doesn't seem to bother the cattle.Sprayed with 24D/Banvel this spring but didn't get a good kill.


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## prairie

mulberrygrovefamilyfarm said:


> Anybody ever try to graze their cattle in an area with sand burrs? I have some ground that has been sitting idle for a while and it has sand burr mixed in with other grassy weeds. Wondering how cow/calf pairs might react to them?


Sandburs are excellent and high quality grazing and prefered by most livestock. The trick is to graze them completely before the burs will stick to your jeans.

In most well managed grazing situations, sandburs are only a temporary inconveinence that can be put to good use. Under haying situations they may be more of a problem.

I am not well versed on herbicides, but do know that there are several herbicides that do a good job of control.

Brad

NE Nebraska


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## mlappin

In my area at least, the saying is if you have sandburs, you don't have enough lime yet. Not sure how true that may be as the only time we've delt with them has been in the row crops and round up takes care of that.


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## okhillbilly

Most of the time cows will eat sandburs as long as they are young and tender with no ill effects. When they get mature they usually will graze around them. You can spray several chemicals on them to help cut back on them, MSMA and JOURNEY are for sandburrs and I think PRONTO is a preemergent sprayed in hay fields. MSMA kills everything but bermuda grass, But it will brown it out for a few weeks. I don,t know about adding more lime to the soil. I have sandburrs growing on soil from 6.4 to 8.7 ph. I have read about using corn gluten meal as a natural preemergent and has around 4% nitrogen. Its in SCOTTS weed and feed as an ingredient. The best way I found to thin them out is to pick the burrs off and cut the plant off and burn them. Very labor intensive and time consuming.


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## UpNorth

Generally most weeds can be grazed in the vegetative growth stage without side-effects on the cows/calves as a few people have already suggested. The key is to get them grazed or cut prior to the reproduction stages (elongation and reproduction) by then all the nasty compounds that make a bitter taste or posion to the cattle are being made by the plant.

This is a similar reason for grazing the old tall fescue variteies when they are shorter. There the fungus that lives in the plant (endophyte) that causes health problems, but it takes awhile for the the compounds to build up on the plant from the fungus.


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## RCF

I have seen no ill effects on cows grazing in pastures with sand burrs. We control our sandburr problem with pre emerge and sometimes spot spraying with roundup but that is in hay meadows. Be sure to check the labels on the chemicals to see if you are able to graze them after spraying or how long you will need to keep the cows off that part of the field.


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## BTaylorzx

RCF, what pre emerge are you using for sandbur?


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## GeneRector

Howdy! I'm looking into Prowl H20 right now as a pre-emergent. It was recently approved for bermuda grass hay meadows. There is Pastora for use as a post-emergent as well that is approved for Texas. You can Google for information on each. Always, Gene


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## RCF

We use Direx.


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