Pasture improvement & Fireweed

3 posts
Mon, 09/23/2013 - 21:52 #1

Member for

10 years 6 months
Centralcoast
Last seen: 09/23/2013 - 22:55
Joined: 09/23/2013 - 20:47

Pasture improvement & Fireweed

Hi, 

 We moved to Somersby from Sydney 2 years ago, and soon after, 3 beautiful highland steers joined our family as pets (and lawn mowers!) We have 3 seperate paddocks covering just over 5 acres of cleared pasture and the cattle have access to all three paddocks.

During summer we have had plenty of feed for our boys but during the winter months as there is not much to graze on, we are buying feed for them (large round bales in a bale feeder + a grain). This winter we have gone through a lot more feed than last year, and we are concerned that the quality of pasture in the paddocks is gradually declining and we are overstocked and may need to think about downsizing our herd...
Til now, we have done nothing to improve the pastures - what can/should we be doing to increase grazing for our boys? Should we be fertilising each year or rotating paddocks to give them a rest? Sowing grass seeds?  I have noticed other farms in the area applying a white spray to their paddocks - is this lime? Maybe we need to have our soil tested?

It has also been suggested to us that if the quality of grazing pasture is poor or too short, the cattle can ingest the soil as they feed which can cause health problems - is this true?

Lastly, we have a lot of Fireweed (Senecio madagascariensis) in the paddocks which we have tried in vain to remove by manually pulling each plant... it's been suggested that we use a blow torch to burn them - any ideas on the best way to reduce/eradicate fireweed? It's taking over! 

We love our beautiful little country property & the fulfilling lifestyle it offers us and our young family, but we are not natural farmers, and are still learning about the practicalities of living on acerage. Any advice on how we can improve our paddocks would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks :)

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Fri, 09/27/2013 - 13:50 #2
rmcpb
Last seen: 03/08/2018 - 21:05
Joined: 10/22/2012 - 11:13

Fireweed is only one of the idicators that something is wrong. Most weeds are great colonisers but bad competitors. As such they indicate a reduction in groundcover which allows them to get a foothold. By improving the groundcover you effectively remove their advantage.

Now that is off my chest we can get on with some info.

For a start I would not be giving the cattle access to all of your property at once. This is called set grazing and effectively ensures that the most nourishing plants become extinct in your paddocks. If you think about it, the cattle like plant A more than plant B so they initially eat all of plant A to the ground before eating plant B. Now plant A is severely knocked around and will take time to recover while plant B just continues to get stronger. Everytime a shoot of plant A gets going it gets eaten so soon the plants become weak and die which leaves you with a paddock of plant B which is not so good.

Now, if you only let your cattle into one paddock at a time, allowing the other two to recover, the cattle will still preferentially eat plant A but when its eaten down then the cattle are moved onto another paddock and plant A can recover. This has many names, cell grazing, strip grazing, etc and is a very common parctice at the moment. It actually increases the diversity of your pasture as many plants thought to be gone still have a seed bank and come up during the recovery phase.

Another thing to watch for is compaction as it is very common on small places with cattle and horses as they are big and heavy and concentrated compared to larger areas where they are spread out. In this case the compacted soil restricts water infiltration resulting in dryer soil and reduces root penetration which prevents the plants from accessing nutrients and water deeper down. This weakens the plants and reduces the productivity of the area. Moving the cattle around will give the soil time to loosen up but if its really compacted then it may need deep ripping but first try moving the cattle around (its cheaper).

You are right, the white stuff is probably lime. Commonly put on pasture to raise the pH as the animal wastes tend to lower the pH which changes the plants ability to extract nutrients and further weakens the plants. Yes, a soil test would not go astray but even a simple pH test (kits from any nursery) would help.

As for stocking levels, you may be a bit over stocked, a rule of thumb we try to use is the beer can test. We move our cattle when we still cannot see a beer can standing in the paddock. This leaves the plants with many reserves and keeps them in the vegetative phase (actively growing) and they recover much more quickly. Now if you can't work within the beer can test then you may have to move some of your cattle on.

After saying all that Fireweed can be used against itself. If you mow it (about 2-3") BEFORE it sets seed it effectively competes with its seedlings. The existing plants will shade the soil which suppresses germination, they will grow again, you mow again which adds nutrients to the soil (weeds generally have deep roots which bring up nutrients and help break up compacted soil). After a while throwing a few desirable seeds around will kickstart the comeback. The main thing is to prevent the Fireweed from seeding so you have to keep at it. Pull any isolated plants but keep the ground cover to suppress germination. Also, if you can fence off the worst areas teh recovery will be quicker.

Now that is my Friday rant.

Cheers
Rob.

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Sun, 09/29/2013 - 11:14 #3
barb
Last seen: 09/17/2019 - 18:07
Joined: 11/23/2011 - 09:38

Hi, 

I agree with what  Rob has advised  and would like to add to the discussion. This weed is toxic to stock, especially cattle and horses, causing illthrift and sometimes death from liver damage, even when dry. When you pull it out make sure that you put the pulled plants where the stock don't have acess to them. Wear gloves when pulling it also. 

Apart from the methods suggested by Rob, you can also use some weed sprays (get advice from your local nursery as to the most effective type) to help in the control of this plant and fertilising can also help. However, a word of caution, it is said that super phosphate can encourage it's growth.  A few sheep (wethers) can help to control the weed as they are a little less susceptable to the toxin. 

You are correct, that if the pasture is very short then stock can ingest soil while grazing causing a ball of soil, commonly known as a mud ball to form in the stomach. If this is large enough it can eventually kill the animal. Another reason to use the cell grazing method suggested by Rob. I have heard of cattle having a ball of mud in the gut weighing several kilograms.

Good luck with erradicating this pest. I had a similar experience with a weed called Khakii burr a few years ago and it took me about 4 years and a lot of time and money, to get rid of it. It was introduced onto the property in hay I bought in the drought. I tried hand pulling and chipping but finally and reluctantly, was forced to resort to using Tordon 75D to control it.

I would have been better off if I had checked the hay before feeding it out but was so desperate to get hay, which was in very short supply during the drought, that I threw caution to the wind and bought 300 bales without checking it first. 

Anyway hoping this has helped a little.

regards,

Barb 

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