How to get rid of broomsedge on your farm.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 มี.ค. 2021
- How to get rid of broomsedge on your farm. There are several techniques to get rid of broomsedge on your farm. In this video Greg details the different methods he has used. Check out my books for more tips for your farm on our website: greenpasturesfarm.net/books/
I am buying row crop ground in Northern Ohio (My only choice for the area we want to live in). What are your suggestions for getting that ground converted to pasture? Is a drill the best option to get grass established? Thank you!
A drill will give you a better stand of grass. Better seed to soil contact. Best of luck to you. Don't put the clover in the new seeding until you get a good stand of grass established. The clover will kill out your new grass stand by shading it out. You can always come back later this fall or next winter and broadcast over your new grass planting.
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher Thank you!!
I love it when Greg says “Don’t do that!” 😁
It’s like he’s talking to a 6 year old 😂
I love your generational work.
Another great video Greg! I have a pasture full of broomsedge that I have to start working on.
You’re the Gold Standard for great information on ranching. Appreciate all of your advice! We are weekend ranchers and there just isn’t enough time to make bad mistakes or trial and error. Thanks for all you do.
I learn new things everyday thanks to you, Thank you Greg!
Happy to hear that!
I really like the way you teach those young men.
Outstanding video , very informative. We are fighting this weed all the time. Once we started rotational grazing, we seemed to get ahead of it, but late summer it gets ahead of us.
Thanks for covering this topic. A lot of folks have this issue.
Thanks for watching!
You are absolutely right about feeding out on the land to raise PH levels. We have been feeding hay on our land for 4 generations and no lime or additives and our soil tests have been in the 6-8ph levels.
I know this is over a long time and we never did much for synthetic fertilizer all those year
Greg, I have just shared this video with @coghillfamilyfarm in Alabama. They've just bought 40 acres and I hope that watching your channel will get their land regenerating the right way!
That's great, hope they can pick up some tips that will help them.
Very helpful lesson , right in the field!!! ❤️
A fish fry with Greg Judy sounds like a blast! Thanks for sharing your work guys!
Our pleasure!
Thank you for this. We are in SW Missouri and are in year three of adjusting a pasture with low PH/phosphorus with broomsedge. It is looking better than when we started. Our neighbor used it for his horses and cattle but did not rotational graze so we have some correcting to do there. Thank you Greg for putting out so much good information. We are grateful!
Your welcome, glad your pastures are starting to get better. You will get there with good grazing management.
Greg you and your men always put on a good show, City Boy Here from Dunedin,Florida, USA.
I got rid of most of my sedge with a spade shovel... Greg Judy inspired management intensive grazing will take care of keeping it away.
Great information! Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
My pleasure!
You do such a great job of educating those boys, fantastic to be able to learn all this first hand & on the land!
Thanks for sharing that Judy good to know on my farm here in South Jersey✨🐝
Great information. I'll use this method to start healing my land.
Our farm was used for years as a 'recreation' property. It was clear cut, dozed, and then used for ATVs for about 10 years. It is nothing but broomsedge. Since we moved here we have been rolling out junk hay which has helped a little. It's time to add animals though. Thanks for this timely video!
Animals will certainly help.
In Chicagoland, I am jealous of your acidic soil. For five years I have been putting surfer and azalea plant food azalea nitrogen and it is all I can do to get the front lawn to a 7.0 PH.
Soil test a few years ago came back at 7.6 PH and low potash. Tap water tested 8.2 PH. This is why I hate watering! Plenty of rain this spring but usually by July the hot days force me to water with alkaline water.
Bedrock! Quarries all around!
Kentucky Blue Grass prefers 6.5-6.75 from I have gathered.
Thanks as always gentlemen
It’s not native plant where I live. It doesn’t grow up here in northern Illinois. No wonder why I never saw it. I’m glad you did a TH-cam video on it.I bought some red clover and bird’s foot trefoil seeds. I’m planning to frost seed on Monday when it comes in. I’m hoping to broadcast it before our winter storm comes in. We are going to get 3-5” of snow.
It certainly grows in Illinois, I have seen it growing in fields where they take a lot of hay off the land without fertilizing it.
GREG, you guys are thinking like me! just before you guys said anything bout a water point on the other side from the one you now have! as for that broom sage, we have that around here to, thank you guys for the tips on how to get rid of it! do you guys have any thoughts on how to get rid of spotted knap weed? great tips! great video!
Bones=Calcium Carbonate=Lime ish. Deer season I acquire many deer carcasses from deer processor to feed my LGDs. Those carcasses are scattered on the Broom Sage areas. Rodents eat the bones and scatter and digest the bones = “Lime” from the bones gets added, slowly, to the Broom Sage areas. In addition I feed square bales in these Broom Sage areas.
Another great learning vid
Thanks Professor Judy for this great and timely video on Broom Sage. I just bought 60 acres in Choctaw County, OK and I have a few acres of sage... now if you think it wise, I will cut it as soon as the ice and snow permit (maybe mid Feb 2022). Beyond that, I'm not sure since I have just bought the land and not planning to run cattle at this point. A neighbor will cut the hay, but it appears that continuous hay bailing may be part of the problem? In a year of two, I'm thinking about hair sheep and maybe a few head of cattle? Ideas or advice would be appreciated. Also, who or how can I get my soil tested in SE OK? Thanks. O'Foot
The timing on this was perfect! My husband and I were talking yesterday about what did we need to do to our new place to improve the soil and get rid of broomsedge.. all we knew was to spread lime, and, of course, when we put cows on it, we’d rotational grazing. I burned a couple of piles of round bale remnants last week.. Since it is now spring, after a tough winter, I’m not sure where we’ll be able to find quality hay from this past year to help improve our soil
Next time before you burn your round bale remnants, spread those bale leftovers on your broomsedge areas. Broomsedge hates fertility.
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher will do! Thanks!
Greg, I have 20 acres in a mountain area of New Mexico. Elevation is 7700 ft. About 18-20 inches of rainfall a year. Is burning of broom sage and Sage brush bad? And then unroll old hay? Or is it better to brush beat and then in roll hay and put animals on it. We are trying to revitalize the original range grass and over seed it as well.
@@robhanson6387 fire kills whatever life is near the surface. like tilling, this is a move away from living soil... roll or beat the brush down (best done with animal impact)
I want an invite to your Fish Fry 😋😋 Thanks for the great tip on Broom sage. Tell my friend about so she can start trying to get rid of it. Area can't be grazed cause hard to get Cattle to that field. But with fertilizer and old hay I bet she can get the job done. Peace from WV
LIme & P & grazing & hay to renew the broom sedge to pasture. Would fescue be the preferred forage or another grass? Zone 7 maybe 6b on a cold winter. Thanks for the tips gentlemen.
Thanks Grerg!
I started unrolling hay and putting round bales on buck bushes and blackberrys cattle seems to trop them in the ground.
Interested to see how the rocks holds up. Also, doubles as a boat launch you know!
Its doing awesome in all the rain storms we have been having. The ultimate test for 300 animals drinking from it in extremely wet conditions and it is holding up like a champ.
We've got quite a bit of broom sage but the soil is deep and dark at about a 6 to 7 PH. We must have a phosphorous problem, but we've got a lot of other good diversity in the field.
We will be starting on pasture building as soon as our 40 acres is closed.
Would love a video of all of you fishing.
Maybe one day!
Hi Greg,
This video was about Broomsedge problems in soils where there is low Phosphorus.
Besides the option to unroll hay and graze in these areas, what are your thoughts about planting a crop of Buckwheat in that area to bring Phosphorus up to the topsoil and make it available?
Thank you kindly,
Chris
Our pasture looks like this. The hay unrolling can only happen in the winter? So whats the best option for spring going into summer?
Great video!!!! Look's like You have 2 great Guy's that share and want to help You achieve Your goals and theirs too. Do You think that the Pond Skirt is better than fencing the whole pond off and having it feed a water tank below it? With the skirt the cattle are going to pollute the water more by gathering on the skirt.
I like both systems. If you don't have a pipe through the dam, put a rock skirt on it.
This is EXACTLY our new land! Broomsedge all over, got a soil test, incredibly acidic soil with almost no phosphorus. We’re gonna bite the bullet and get lime and phosphorus spread this year, even at high prices.
got 75 ac last fall in the mountains of Kentucky and it has nothing but broomsedge on it. just put out Ky 31 fescue and red clover on it along with a few other clovers. hoping to have something that will feed the sheep I'm getting this summer. had soil done but can't afford the fertilizer it will need or a way to get it on the field. got a good rain after I put it out and is calling for rain for the next week so hoping I can get something started. as always enjoy the program and what it is teaching
Gerald....if you havent checked, go see your local NRCS office. I qualified for a cost share program; NRCS had me soil test, low Ph, spread phosp and seed; NRCS helped pay for it.
have to be on the land for a year to qualify for cost sharing, they did do a soil test for me, thank you
Question??? What do you think about moving chickens through the poor pasture. I was thinking about bush hogging it down to around 4 inches and putting chickens on it in premier 1 fence. Moving them through.
Just wanted to say I really like your channel and wish I could to something like this one day. When I was 13 -14 years old we lived next to our grandparents and they had a small farm, At the time I really wanted a motorbike, but that was kind of expensive, so my mom came up with the ide that we should buy a calf (as my grandparents was about to do the same) so one more would not matters. So we did and I was helping out a little, and some 12 or 18 months later I was able to buy my bike ✌️😊 ,,, And that investment helped me for long time afterwards... Sold the bike bought a car etc.
Thanks for sharing Robert!
@@jerrylansbury9558 Well, when I got the money I originally wanted to buy 4 new calf’s,,, but something called school came in the way, and not our land and farm ...
@@jerrylansbury9558 '90 nissan sold 2005,'99 sl2 lost2010, 2012 fit-now really miss that pickup. Got 2acres of broomsedge & would love to graze small herd of hair sheep or couple steers. 60 yo non-farmer though.. ✌
If I get rid of my brooms hedge, will my sereacea lespedoza go the way of the dodo too? Or does it take a different approach?
My instincts suggest if you run a hot nutrient loading like ranging chickens with the cows on pasture you could reduce broomsedge.
Thanks for the video.
Question, what about burning it?
Looking forward to your thoughts.
Burning broomsedge only makes it healthier and more robust!!!!!
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher
Thanks for reply, i almost burnt it in February glad i didn't.
I'll continue rolling out hay on it.
The pigs hit my fields, I have been filling those with the manure from my horses. Making good compost tea. I then rototilled after letting setting for several weeks. As soon as it drys enough I will harrow and seed. Hope I can report good results.
Seems you might benefit from studing more about permaculture and no-till farming.
Seems like you don't have my pig problem. Holes up to twenty inches deep have already been tilled, just in case you hadn't figured it out.
Funny thing about plowing is that it is very effective in killing all the plants and life you want to live, but it encourages all the weeds and plants you are trying to get rid of
Hogs will clear that stuff right up.root it up and turn the soil. hotwire Manageable paddocks go behind them and fert and overseed. I dont have equipment tractors and stuff so thats what im doing starting soon.
Standing broomsedge is a sign of soil fertility, or lack there of. But also an indication of how/when the fields were grazed or cut. As broomsedge is a warm season grass, Grazing problem fields in the late spring and through summer creates a perfect opportunity for it to thrive as the cattle will selectively not eat it. On hay fields, a late spring or early summer cutting will give broomsedge and other warm season grasses a good window of hot/dry weather to out-grow other grasses during this time.
I would rotate cattle off the problem areas entirely in the spring and allow your fescue, clover, or in my case Timothy to make a stand and remain though the summer. Preventing or slowing the growth of lesser quality warm season grasses like broomsedge. This stock-pile could then be grazed down in the fall or harvested for hay, and broomsedge will not have had an opportunity to grow in the first place.
Isn’t that what he said in the video?
A good mix of clovers fix just about anything. The clovers make the grass more palatable, they draw earthworms in to the area, cattle will drop more urine and manure in the area carrying other seeds, the earthworms help break everything down and their castings are neutral PH.
my reading suggested to me that buckwheat, rye grasses, vetches (and clover) seed under the hay before cattle... these plants give root exudates that encourage (feed) the right kinds of bacteria to break down the phosphosus available in the soil (rock) minerals making organic (usable) P available for next season
Clovers will certainly help if you can get them to grow among broomsedge plants. Broadcasting clover in late winter, followed by impacting that area with livestock will help trample the seed.
can you mow it then do the hay or leave it alone and put hay on it?
Talk to us about the pig-tail fence posts. I see them there on the atv, but I don't think you've mentioned them in all the fencing videos. I realize they're a trade-off with only one position for fence. When/where do y'all use them in your operation?
We use pigtail posts at corners or where we need more stability in our daily temporary fencing set-up. They can take the weight of the geared reel hanging on them much better than the Obrien step-in posts.
Mr. Judy, great video. Coming to ya from West Virginia. A fair amount of our pasture is extremely steep ground. What would you do for those areas covered with broom sage that you couldn’t get a round bale to it? Even too steep for the tractor....
I would let grow as tall and thick as possible, then use temporary fencing with long narrow paddocks and let the livestock trample it on the ground with daily moves
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher thank you sir for the reply. It’s awesome hearing back from you!
All the best to you in your future grazing endeavors!!
We just purchased 50+ acres in South Central TX and have tons of Mesquite and Acacia on it. How would you recommend beating that back to make for more pasture?
I am not familiar with Acacia, unless you are referring to catclaw. I have seen pasture in Mexico that was grazed with very high density at the right time, for short duration. In the more brittle environments the soils can hold a very viable seed bank for native grasses. Those native grasses on one ranch I saw in Chihuahua came back so strongly that over time they began to drought out the mesquites. In case you dont know mesquites and catclaw if that is what you are referring to, can be important browse for cattle. The idea may be, through grazing management, to develop a balance of browse plants and native grasses.
Is this similar to little blue stem?
What happens if you hammer the broomsedge in that short June 20 forage window? Will the increased fertility/ Ph change have a greater effect on it not coming back than the usual benefits to the grass of grazing?
Any kind of animal impact on broomsedge is a good thing. Adding fertility along with disturbance of planting hooves in the broomsedge canopy certainly helps.
Greg, I just lease a pasture with pockets of this broom sedge on about 1/3 of pasture. I have a 3 year lease and is not renewable. What is your recommendation to do with it or do nothing. Located in central Florida.
Unroll hay on it during the dormant season. It will help grow more grass at the least cost.
What about scattering minerals salt and a little bit of grain in those small patches?
We don't feed grain to our livestock and you certainly do not want to spread salt on the land. This would kill the soil.
Never Plow?
To include plowing under a cover crop as green manure?
Do not open up your soil, you will go broke!!!!
Do you have Foxtail on your place? If so, is it addressed in the same fashion?
In my experience fox tail likes over grazed pastures, and is not an indicator of poor fertility. I think if you graze your fox tail area at different times then you have been and leave more residual it will go away. It's an annual, and it's fairly short if you don't have giant fox tail, so think about when your seeing it go to seed and try and have the grasses you like be tall enough to shade it.
YEAHHHH.. Greg is out of february..:D
@Martin and he was in March, in February 😄
He’s just evening things out, HaHa
I Have about 24" of brown Broomsedge from last year standing in my pasture. Should I BrushHog it down before the other grasses get going or leave it and let the other grasses come up between the Broomsedge? Thanks for all the help! 😁🐮🐮🐂🐃🐄
if it's standing,grass won't grow and sedge won't rot. mow it right away
I second what Lenore Parker said. Get it ASAP while the ground is still frozen
@@swamp-yankee Not frozen here in Oklahoma, torrential rains, but I'll get it ASAP. Thanks :)
@@PierceWellnessCenter Thanks for the advice fellows. I just bought 60 acres in Choctaw County, OK and I have a few acres of sage... now with your advice I will cut it as soon as the ice and snow permit (maybe mid Feb 2022). Beyond that, I'm not sure since I have just bought the land and not planning to run cattle at this point. A neighbor will cut the hay, but it appears that continuous hay bailing may be part of the problem? In a year of two, I'm thinking about hair sheep and maybe a few head of cattle? Ideas or advice would be appreciated. Also, who or how can I get my soil tested in SE OK? Thanks. O'Foot
@@durwoodfoote9607 The same subject came up in the grazing group and the concensus was that it's a waste of time and diesel to mow the broomsedge. I brushhogged it last year, this year I won't and we'll see what happens.
What about mulching . I sm having my land cleared by mulching? What will that do, as I don't have animals.
Nothing wrong with adding carbon sources to your land. Your soil microbes will appreciate it!
Do or can you roll out hay in the summer time???? and does it work if you dont have cows on your land, or do you need to do it in the winter.
Unroll hay in the winter and put animals on it for best return
I wonder why broom is part of the name for the grass was it used to create brooms at one time?
So are there any value added things that a person could do with it while working to improve the soil?
Brooms ? Fire starts to use with kindling to get a camp fire going? Would the June to July plant be a good addition to a compost pile? I have a beautiful crafted broom that I bought forty some years ago on a trip to Michigan, I have a neighbour who fills paper bags with wood shavings to sell at markets as firestarters and the city I live in makes compost out of the stuff I put in the green bin that the garbage crew empties each week thus my suggestions! One last suggestion creating mats out small bundles of the stuff. Oops sorry forgot to add 🤷🏼♀️🤔👍👍👍👍👍👍👍😘💕🤭🖖🖖🖖🖖🖖🖖🖖🖖🖖🙋🏼♀️
My old timer neighbor said it used to be used for packing for shipping fragile stuff back in the day. Apparently that spread it pretty good.
@@swamp-yankee I remember visiting a small museum run by a China shop that had been owned by The Hayward and the Warwick families for many years I have a faint recollection of a picture of a wooden crate being unpacked i think that I would not be a good witness as I can't picture what was used to protect the china that had been shipped from Great Britain. Thank you for sharing your story of the old timer who told you about the broom sedge s use as packing material. It is so astonishing that the seed bank can hide until conditions are perfect. I tried to do a search on the supplies but no luck.,well some luck just no google luck.
I don't have any cattle. The only animals I have at this point are chickens. What do I do?
I have a bunch of it on my property. Would it be best to brush hog it while letting the cows work it over?
Brushhogging it will keep it more vegetative and Livestock will eat it better. Your also weakening the root system at the same time!
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher Thank you, sir
If it was a small paddock say maybe 3-5 acres, I have heard that doing a prescribed burn on that land helps? What’s your take on prescribed burns?
He has some videos on this. He's not a fan of burning... You burn up all your carbon into the air when you want it in your soil for organic matter.
Burning broomsedge just makes it return with a mightier vengeance. You have killed all the soil biology and ridded yourself of the precious soil carbon. Broomsedge is happy now!!
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher okay, thank you for the advice. Will be taking a soil test here soon and will be unrolling lots of hay on it next winter.
@@ryangallivan2483 not only spread hay but also have animal impact to trample the carbon into the soil. Then Let it rest , and repeat also ask around maybe there is a government program that will help pay for some lime to help boost the soil ph
How do you freeze your fish? I add water to the bag, it won’t get freezer bernt frozen in water
We freeze them in water to prevent the fish from getting freezer burn. Works like a champ.
Can you spread manure with a manure spreader and then roll hay where you have broom sedge?
You'd have to have a source for the bulk manure to load a spreader, since they rotational graze their cattle it's already spread out from their herd.
@@Digger927 I have a lot of manure to spread and not that many acres of broom sedge. I just can’t graze in the broom sedge right now because of lack of fencing.
@@kelleyniemanatthebablerbar2769 Then yes, that manure is a good source of natural fertilizer to use in that situation.
Don't know what that is but would sheep eat that?
I know here in ny I'm using pigs to clear the ground. I know doing that would drive a pasture farmer crazy but you can get a lot done in one summer.
Nope. Sheep won't touch it except a short window that Greg said.
Sheep will eat straw before they will eat mature broomsedge.
Wow, glad I don't have that.
What about burning it off to allow other grasses to be able to get light
Will not do any good. Your just stimulating the broomsedge, it loves being burned. You will have more stronger broomsedge!!!!!!
12:14 what is that piece of tin?
I am Assame Sri nice video new friend stay connected 🙏🙏
We always use lime
When is the Greg Judy cookbook coming out🤣
You might starve following my cook book, Jan would be a better candidate!
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher Could she?
What time do brandy embles in on June 20th.
Kidding but I know that you know 😏.
Do Ben and Izack live with you? Or do you have a bunk house for them?
We have an intern mobile home on our farm for them.
If only I'd known these things 20 years ago, I could have my 5 acres back that I sold...And I'm thinking of renting it back when I have animals, if the owner hasn't built by then.
I had a friend trade me 125 bales of this in the field back when hay was $2 sq. bale for a wood heater I bought at a yard sale for $25.. We knew the horses weren't going to eat it so I took it to walmart and sold it to them about halloween time for $4 bale to use for decoration. That's how you make money "farming".
How about burning it?
Fish fry sounds good! What time do I need to be there😁...just joking. Y'all enjoy it. God bless
Bring a dish of cole slaw and join us :)
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher lol...I make killer homemade slaw...😳 Hopefully one day it will happen...God bless
Any ideas how to get rid buttercups in a over grazed pasture
Stop over grazing. They dont compete with tall grass.
I've dealt with buttercups, and ya, pretty much only thing to do is the opposite of what made them a problem. I would unroll and feed hay on the pasture to give the pasture a boost and keep your animals out of the pasture for a long rest during the spring flush, and once the pasture plants have grown to maturity, and gone to seed (and the buttercup of course will go to seed which is unavoidable) then graze your pasture at the highest stock density you can (like move every half hour), so that they trample down all the buttercup plants while they graze (and if you do this with sheep, they actually eat allot of the plant especially at high stock density. If you can't do super high stock density, graze it on whatever rotation you can and get the animals out of there once grazed to rest it then go and mow down the buttercup, and if you continue that practice for a few years the buttercup should at least get suppressed and not be much of a problem.
@@swamp-yankee noone said I over grazed it. Its actually a farm I just got a lease on
@@ClearwaterAngus someone overgrazed it. Now you have the fun challenge of running animals on it
@@ClearwaterAngus your right. Sorry. I wouldn't expect a gjrr viewer to have done the over grazing. I just know butter cup loves an over grazed pasture. My little bit of buttercups went away quickly. My inherited and persistent weed is horse nettle.
Would sheep eat the broomsedge?
Sheep will only eat broomsedge for about 4-6 weeks. Must be in the 4-9" height to get good animal performance from it.
As Greg has noted before--Tennessee is FULL of this stuff. I've been really noticing all the fields/pastures when out driving and every over-grazed pasture, and every over-hayed field is full of it.
I know how to fix it. FEED ATOP that mess!
Feed hay on top of it and beat it up!
Need to graze it hard and graze it young.
March- mow it
June 10th graze it all the way down
July 1st or when there is regrowth graze it again and again and again...
Good advice!
$1100 ton April 2022. $150 acre
you had me at fried potatoes
15 foot wide rock path can water 200 head? Seems tight.
The pad is 19 feet wide and only a hand full of cows come to drink at one time. The closer your water source is to where they are grazing, the less animals you have drinking at once.
Wouldn't wood ashes help?
If you had enough of them, yes they would.
Broom straw tells me I will have deer bedding down in the middle of those patches.
280 pounds per acre, at $349 per 25 pounds, or $13.96 per pound, 40 acres = $156,352.00
Lime
Good morning fellas. Would control burns help to remediate ph
Burning fields is almost as bad as plowing. You lose organic matter and it makes the soil bear. It would be much better to unroll hay and have animals beat it up and defecate on it.
No. I tried fire years ago and the broom sedge came back thicker than before the burn.
@@lynncarrington9862 good to know. Thanks.
@@wcm68tn good to know. Thanks
What if you burn it?
Nope, it just makes it come back stronger
Wow. But you’ve lost the carbon into the air when burning.
Ploughing only makes it worse. You are not fixing the issue.
I got broomsedge lol. Oh is 6.6 but Phosphorus is 0
Short answer there is no quick fix for anything when it comes to repairing land.