Buttercups, what to spot spray?

[QRTRHRS]

The buttercups are starting to show up in my pastures. I have plenty of fields to rotate my horses while I try to kill them off by spot spraying them. Any suggestions on an over the counter herbicide?

 

[ponytug]

I guess depends on how many you have. I have spot removed them with a propane torch, and a "grandPa's puller", but a whole field full is a different story. Sometimes you can get ahead of them by over seeding / drilling pasture grass mixes.

For herbicides:
Feb-Mar application recommended;

Buttercups in Grazed Pastures | Master Grazer

By Dr. J.D. Green, Extension Weed Scientist Plants typically produce 5 shiny yellow petals in the early spring. One of the signs that spring has arrived is when the yellow flowers of buttercup begin to appear, but it’s during the winter months that the vegetative growth of buttercup takes place...

grazer.ca.uky.edu

FWIW: U of G's recommended herbicide list, but their spray dates are Nov/Dec.

Controlling Buttercups in Pastures | Integrated Pest Management

ipm.uga.edu

A lot of them have 2,4-D as an ingredient, which I personally would not be wild about having in my pastures because of the toxicity and persistence, but that's me.

All the best,

Peter

 

[1 Old Man]

2,4-D has a 1/2 life of about a week to 10 days +/-. No ill effect on livestock
or grazing restrictions (some states require applicators license). But spot spray
of a few weeds? No applicator license needed. (*state laws vary)

*edit: dairy cows are a no no, beef cows off 4-5 days before slaughter

 

[QRTRHRS]

Ponytug, what is a "grandpa's puller”?

 

[part-time-Farmer-NC]

Agriculture vinegar oughta work.

Spray Weeds With Vinegar? : USDA ARS

 

[ponytug]

Ponytug, what is a "grandpa's puller”?

Sorry, I didn't quite have the name right. "Grandpa's weeder"

Basically, you stab it at the center of the weed by stepping on a small foot bar, pivot the handle which crimps the weed and pops it out of the ground. Not much survives the treatment, but it can be a fair amount of work. I used one extensively to get rid of poison hemlock here, after first steaming most of it to death with a propane torch after a rain, while the plants were wet. It laughed at Roundup, and sprouted again the next year.

Grampa's Weeder - The Original Stand Up Weed Remover

Remove weeds & their roots without bending, pulling, kneeling, or use of chemicals. Click now for the best weed puller that's been around for over 105 years!

grampasweeder.com

@1 Old Man the 14 day number above is the 2,4-D half life. Some of the decomposition products and modified forms have much longer half lives. It does get a lot of grief for being similar to 2,4,5-T (Agent Orange was a mixture of the two), but I think the data isn't 100% clear cut one way or the other.

https://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/24Dgen.pdf

Having worked on 2,4,5-T toxicity, I personally steer clear of both, but I do know that human and rodent sensitivities are quite different, as the Seveso disaster taught the world.

Seveso disaster - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

All the best,

Peter

 

[QRTRHRS]

Agriculture vinegar oughta work.

Spray Weeds With Vinegar? : USDA ARS

Interesting! We are getting rain today. As soon as it dries out, I will try some. If our normal household vinegar does not do the trick then I will seek out a higher concentration.

 

[QRTRHRS]

Sorry, I didn't quite have the name right. "Grandpa's weeder"

Basically, you stab it at the center of the weed by stepping on a small foot bar, pivot the handle which crimps the weed and pops it out of the ground. Not much survives the treatment, but it can be a fair amount of work. I used one extensively to get rid of poison hemlock here, after first steaming most of it to death with a propane torch after a rain, while the plants were wet. It laughed at Roundup, and sprouted again the next year.

Grampa's Weeder - The Original Stand Up Weed Remover

Remove weeds & their roots without bending, pulling, kneeling, or use of chemicals. Click now for the best weed puller that's been around for over 105 years!

grampasweeder.com

@1 Old Man the 14 day number above is the 2,4-D half life. Some of the decomposition products and modified forms have much longer half lives. It does get a lot of grief for being similar to 2,4,5-T (Agent Orange was a mixture of the two), but I think the data isn't 100% clear cut one way or the other.

https://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/24Dgen.pdf

Having worked on 2,4,5-T toxicity, I personally steer clear of both, but I do know that human and rodent sensitivities are quite different, as the Seveso disaster taught the world.

Seveso disaster - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

All the best,

Peter

I think that I may have seen the device that you are talking about. A previous property had a few buttercups. When the ground was wet, I pulled some out but they always came back. The current place has a few more. Nothing like an Amish owned place that I looked at once. Almost solid yellow and they had horses on it!

 

[ponytug]

I think that I may have seen the device that you are talking about. A previous property had a few buttercups. When the ground was wet, I pulled some out but they always came back. The current place has a few more. Nothing like an Amish owned place that I looked at once. Almost solid yellow and they had horses on it!

Do you follow Kentucky Equine Research much? I think that they are a good group with lots of resources. We have found them quite knowledgeable in equine nutrition and metabolism.

https://ker.com/equinews/buttercup-toxicity-horses/

With that preamble, per KER, horses tend to avoid buttercups, if there is reasonable amounts of alternative forage. But it is not just horses, buttercups are hard on other grazers as well.

Any chance of some subsurface drainage, or some swales to dry up the pastures a bit? My recollection is that buttercups are fairly sensitive to cultivation, e.g. harrowing, but it has been many moons since I dealt with buttercups.

All the best,

Peter

 

[John0829]

When we had horses fighting buttercups was an on going, never ending battle. Our pasture was divided into 3 sections that the horses were rotated though, usually a month on each. As soon as they were moved into a new section the old one was sprayed with 2-4d and then allowed to set until it was time to rotate back into it.

I spent days/weeks uprooting them, spot spraying trying whatever I could to keep them beat back and the only thing that finally semi-worked was the rotation. As was mentioned fields around us were/are almost solid yellow, many with horses on them but I blamed most of our problem with buttercups from being brought in in the hay. There were several years questionable hay was the best quality that could be found and in that hay we would find buttercups.

With the horses gone and no longer bring in hay it is rare to see a buttercup in the fields and when I do I just spot spray it and forget it since nothing is feeding on the pasture anymore.

 

[QRTRHRS]

I no longer have or need a lot of pasture. We only have about 3 acres in grass, hardly enough to need more than a mower to maintain. I just want to keep the buttercups from spreading. We are on a narrow ridge so the soil does drain well.

Also, we are down to three horses, all Arabians actually. One has PPID (cushings). Her half brother while not diagnosed will get a cresty neck if grazed too much. So, they only get maybe an hour a day while I clean, otherwise they are on dry lots. All three are 24 this year. Our quarter horses have gone on to the great pasture.

The third, a ~1200 lb gelding can eat all he wants but he is too bonded to put him out alone.

 

[ponytug]

I no longer have or need a lot of pasture. We only have about 3 acres in grass, hardly enough to need more than a mower to maintain. I just want to keep the buttercups from spreading. We are on a narrow ridge so the soil does drain well.

Also, we are down to three horses, all Arabians actually. One has PPID (cushings). Her half brother while not diagnosed will get a cresty neck if grazed too much. So, they only get maybe an hour a day while I clean, otherwise they are on dry lots. All three are 24 this year. Our quarter horses have gone on to the great pasture.

The third, a ~1200 lb gelding can eat all he wants but he is too bonded to put him out alone.

My bet is that they would graze around the butter cups if they have other forage. If you go the vinegar route, I am sure that they would leave it alone. Arabians tend to be pretty savvy, but there are exceptions to every rule. We've dealt with a few with Cushing over the years.

Perhaps borrow a steer or two to trample things for a bit? I've found for our land that "integrated pest management" often means a couple of ways of pressuring the pests at the same time gets the weeds down or the bugs gone. We have an ongoing battle with a toxic invasive, but as the adjacent properties don't actively do anything, seeds are always being brought in.

All the best,

Peter

 

[QRTRHRS]

I sprayed a couple of flowering buttercups yesterday with household vinegar. Today, they are wilted. Now it's wait to see the long term effects.