Pasture brush control

Pastures and rangeland can be taken over by woody shrub and tree species such as buckbrush, Eastern red cedar and honey locust. Some reproduce by seed, others by a horizontal creeping root system. Left to grow, they can reduce the quantity and quality of desired forages.

Walt Fick is a range management specialist at Kansas State University. He says there are several methods you can use either alone or in combination with each other.

"Proper grazing management’s top of my list in terms of thinking, you know, if we don’t overgraze or do things like that, we probably won’t have these problems as much. Fire is an important thing, so prescribed burning," says Fick. "Thinking mechanically, cut these off based on their physiological cycle and do some good in terms of setting them back. And then of course, there are herbicides that we can use on all of these species."

Some are easier to knock back than others and the methods will vary depending on the species. And, it’s rarely a one-and-done approach. For example, if Eastern red cedar trees aren’t more than a few feet tall, prescribed burning works well. However, they’ll be back in a few years and you’ll have to do it again.

Fick says you’ll have the best results if you attack within a window of opportunity.

"Timing is important in all of these. Unfortunately, they aren’t all susceptible at exactly the same time," he says. "Normally, they need to fully leafed out. Bud stage as these plants start to flower, that’s a good time to treat them with a herbicide."

Fick says it takes planning to get the right herbicides for a particular species in a field. Sometimes mixing 2,4-D with other products is the most effective way to get long-term control.

Now here’s an interesting option – Goats. They’ll eat just about anything and will mow down the brushy stand pretty well.