Do you notice that when it comes to “weeds” many (most) of us get very emotional. You would think there is a real-life monster out to end our very existence. We have no tolerance for weeds. General consensus is that if we can exterminate all weeds from existence the world would be all the better for it but what if we are blinded by our rage? After all, the definition of a weed is a plant that we don’t want in a particular place. It’s a subjective definition. Each person may have a different definition of what a weed is and each person may have a different definition depending on the place. What if we are making other plants guilty by association, just because they are not a grass?
How are your plant identification skills? I think if you are heavily invested in grazing livestock or creating habitat for your favorite past time shouldn’t you know what’s what? Let’s start with some entry level questions. What’s the difference between cool and warm season grasses? Why are they both important? What’s a forb? Why are forbs beneficial? Whether you are a 4th generation cattle producer or a hunter that has bought their first property, not knowing the answers to these questions is costing you quite a bit.
The attitude that grass is just grass is a leading cause of our lack of diversity and the aversion of weeds. We think that the only plant we need to graze is grass or the only cover we need is grass. So, the thinking has been for decades that it isn’t a big deal to blanket spray any of our grassland to get those dang weeds. Reality is most of those weeds are actually forage or beneficial to the grasses we graze. Not all livestock prefer grass, sheep prefer forbs and goats shrubs then forbs then grass. I do actually shutter when I see an airplane spraying a grassland. I’m not here to badmouth aerial sprayers after all they are doing what they are hired to do. It isn’t their objective to increase pounds of calf weaned or make better habitat, it’s yours. Airplanes and boom sprayers are indiscriminate. It’s akin to using a bomb in a big city to get one bad guy. The collateral damage is immeasurable.
Does the eradication of weeds match up with your objective(s)? In your lawn the objective is to have as uniform of a look as possible meaning one grass species and nothing else. Here killing everything but your lawn grass aligns with your objective. In our pasture native forbs help scavenge nutrients for the grass and many are good forages that express themselves at different times throughout the growing season. When a range nerd like me says “express” it means when they are actively growing. As I’ve mentioned many times before, when you have different plants expressing themselves continually throughout the growing season means there is more nutritional value out there for both livestock and wildlife.
There is always the reason to spray because it is the law to control noxious weeds. The law has never been spray noxious weeds. There are other control measures that align with the law with mowing being the easiest alternative. When it comes to things like Leafy spurge sheep or goats may actually be more effective than herbicide. If you don’t have this plant, be thankful.
It’s ironic in what I see with the zealousness attributed to weeds that it is almost always pointed at thistles. I do know some people that attack Wormwood Sage and Leafy Spurge with the same intensity as they do thistles but not many. Often spurge and sage are not even looked at but man those thistles are the devil. Thistles are biannuals, they are relatively easy to control. The irony is that we attack the lesser of the evils without much notice for the weeds that are perennials and much tougher to control. Another irony, did you know there are actually a few species of native thistles? They are not the ones Ultimately when it comes to most weeds like thistles, we are killing the messenger and not actually addressing the problem. All plants have a place with mother nature. There is a cycle in place that responds to different conditions. The earth wants to be covered. This is where many of the plants we consider weeds come in. They are triggered to grow quickly whenever there is a disturbance. This function is to protect the soil. If we can understand it is the disturbance that triggers the weeds, then we can treat the actual problem not the symptom.
Farming is a continuous disturbance and it’s maybe easier to understand than the disturbances in grassland. In our grasslands the most common disturbance is overgrazing or season long grazing. Change our grazing practices and we can actually treat the disease. The other major disturbance is the lack of diversity like we have on much of our CRP. Canadian Thistles often present themselves on the edge of wetlands as there is a fluctuation to the water level. Since most of the native plants that were there to express themselves under the different conditions are gone and there isn’t any competition for the thistles during lower water levels. The same happens in CRP with only warm season grasses like Switch Grass. “Wait don’t you always say native plants are good?” Yes, in a diverse ecosystem with many, many plants that start growing at different times throughout the growing season. If you have only Switch Grass, you don’t have anything growing early to compete with the thistles. Cool season grasses in there would compete with the thistle.
When we have a good mixture of native plants we don’t see problem spots of weeds. When the plant community is healthy there isn’t a trigger for the annual and biannual weeds to grow. In a crop field do we keep spraying all the way through the growing season? No, we stop once the crop canopies as there is no longer a reason to spray as the competition is too great from the crop. A healthy grassland is too much competition for the weeds we loath. We will never eradicate weeds, we need to change our tactics to do a much better job controlling them through management and stop hurting our own objectives by killing all the innocent beneficial plants.