Well, if you want to spray, you can use a shield....think like a dog collar from the vet attached to the end of your nozzle.

I understand if you cut it close to the ground enough times, the plant will lose it's will to live.

I understand, oldokie. I hear wedding bells in my garden as the Johnson grass gets hitched to the bind weed.

I'm at the point where I can only constantly trim it out and hope that Mr. Coleman is correct.

they spray something in the bottoms in the soy bean fields that thins it out and then later hand spray the small amount that sprouts. that is on very large scale and most of it is gone. but it would not take long for it to reappear if the spraying stopped. I will keep digging and i am going to put cardboard down and mulch over it between my rows in another 3 weeks maybe that will help

I agree with Dawn, right down the line. Our livestock LOVES Johnson grass, keeping it trimmed to the ground, outside my main garden. But we've had livestock for ten years and it is still there, popping up in the pasture. It just keeps spreading.

I do dig it, especially in early spring, removing the large clumps and catching the sprouts as they appear. But I know they will never go away completely. My only consolation is that my efforts do keep it manageable, and, it is biomass.

George

Oldokie, I bet they are growing Roundup-Ready Soybeans and spraying with Roundup Ultra (or maybe an even stronger formulation made to be used with their Round-Up Ready crops). The problem that is developing with the use of these kinds of herbicide-ready crops and the accompanying use of the glyphosate in those fields is that we are seeing the emergence of weeds that have developed a tolerance of or a resistance to the herbicides....so we are inadvertently breeding weeds that are harder and harder to kill. It is not a new thing for weeds to develop resistance to or tolerance of a herbicide. It happens all the time with the various herbicides (and insecticides and pesticides as well), but it makes me wonder what the manufacturer's next step will be. An even stronger herbicide that will hurt even more plants with stronger herbicide drift? Where does it end? Somehow, there's got to be a better way to combat weeds.

George, Everyone here has livestock that sometimes feeds on Johnson grass just like yours do. However, in drought periods they have to pull the cattle away from the Johnson grass at some point because it becomes deadly due to the build-up of prussic acid or, for a different reason, due to a build-up of nitrates. Last year during our severe spring drought, our vet was called out to treat three sick cows but couldn't save them. We were in the office with a sick animal and he had just come back from that house call (barn call? pasture call?). They all had fed on Johnson grass and he didn't say if it was nitrate poisoning or prussic acid poisoning in that case, but he felt that the feeding on the Johnson grass in the conditions that existed at the time did cause their death. He sees it fairly often. I'm not sure how the ranchers know at which point they should pull the cattle out of the fields that have Johnson grass. Maybe it is just that when the drought reaches a certain level, they know it is time. It is ironic that this occurs, because in general, Johnson grass is a great forage for livestock under the right conditions.

If we knew back in 1997 when we found this land for sale what we know now, I wonder if the presence of lots of Johnson grass here would have kept us from buying this place. We had to walk through Johnson grass that was 8' tall in the bar ditch and in some other places just to tour the land. Maybe that giant Johnson grass should have been a warning to us, but we weren't smart enough to realize it at the time.

Dawn

When I plow, the johnsongrass rhizomes are exposed. That is when I take them to the burn pile.

Mowing repeatedly doesn't kill Johnson Grass. I have been keeping it mowed in the orchard for over 25 years...until last summer. The grasshoppers were so numerous that I left 3 rows of Johnson Grass between the trees for them to cling to. I didn't want to cut it all and have any more of them move into my garden. That Johnson Grass got 5-6 ft tall over the summer which was wetter than normal. That did surprise me. I expected it to stay shorter than that.

dawn its good you bought that place or else you might have stayed in texas. I mix roundup ultra with 2-4d and have some luck with that, but everything dies cause of the r-up. Now i use 47% generic roundup fyi. I just use it at home. Not for customers. And yes johnson grass can kill cattle. I think as it gets to a certain size it gets dangerous. Don't know what size though. Or age/maturity maybe.

I've heard that Johnson Grass becomes dangerous under stress conditions, like extreme heat and drought. Apart from the pasture situation, I understand that, if you cut it for forage, it is okay while green and it's okay for animal feed when dry. But when it's partially dehydrated it is high in cyanide type compounds. So, for instance, I cut the stuff for my rabbits and feed it either directly to them, or else, I let it dry out crisp before I give it to them.

Johnny, I wish we had had someone plow our entire property when we bought it, because then I would have done the same thing. As it is, I just dig it when I can and dispose of the roots in black trash bags. Despite the fact that my husband is our local fire chief and my son is a professional firefighter, we don't burn brush often. In fact, it probably has been 5-7 years since we've burned it. For most brush, I pile it up, hugelkultur-style on badly eroded areas, and keep adding to those brush piles for years, but I don't put Johnson grass roots there. Eventually the hugelkultur brush pile decomposes to the point that the once eroded area is now filled in with a rich compost/humus from the years of piling on the brush, and then the native plants return to that area on their own. If they don't, I collect seeds of native grasses and forbs from the pasture and scatter them over the newly healed area. It makes me happy to see once-eroded areas that featured ugly red clay eventually return to native grassland.

Dorothy, I have let it grow on the west side of the new back garden for the same reason. I figured if the hoppers could stay there, maybe they'd bother the new garden less. I am not thoroughly convinced it worked. Once rain started falling in June last year, that stuff really started growing and hit about 8' in height. I hated it as it started to invade the garden, where I'd largely dug out all of it the year before. This year (and I haven't done it yet) I may try smothering it with black plastic held down to the ground with U-shaped staples sold for use with landscape fabric. I might be accidentally creating a snake haven underneath that black plastic, but the back garden has a major vole issue, so if snakes were living underneath that black plastic just outside the garden fence, then maybe they'd spend some time eating voles. That would be a win-win situation for me. However, what I fear will happen is that the Johnson grass will just move into the back garden even more.

Scott, I think we ended up right where we were meant to be. I love this land and I love all the friends we've made here. It is a perfect fit for us, but I hate the Johnson grass. Everyone lets it grow and run wild here, so we'll never be rid of it. I just try to keep it out of the places on our property that we try to keep looking civilized.

With the Johnson grass, and I cannot remember the exact details, but the prussic acid builds up after a particular set of circumstances occurs in a specific order. I think there's two or three different ways.

George, Oh, you know how it is, everyone here lets livestock graze on it but then the experienced ranchers do know (most of the time) when to pull the cattle out of a pasture with a lot of Johnson grass so they can avoid the poisoning. It is when a rancher guesses wrong, or the cows escape their pasture and graze on Johnson grass alongside the road when they shouldn't that the cows die. They also cut and bale it as part of their hay crop, as you mentioned.

I know that some of the stresses that can cause the poisoning include drought, freezing weather and excessive nitrogen in the soil. Oh, and excessive moisture. One of the most dangerous times for cattle is immediately after you've cut and baled it (usually the first cutting, which normally is in May here) when there is enough available nitrogen and enough soil moisture that the Johnson grass makes quick, lush growth. I believe that is what happened with the cases our vet saw last year on the day we were in his office. We'd finally had rainfall return here in a big way after months of drought, and everything grew like mad.

Dawn

Dawn,

I am seeing an encouraging trend around the world. Here is one example.

Healthy Farm

I sure hope it finds traction. I hope we haven't passed the point of no return.

Johnny,

That's a great article and I loved it. I, too, see an encouraging trend, even here in our local area.

I see it a lot among the younger farmers----who often have seen older generations in their family farm with conventional chemicals but who want to follow a different path and, by making that choice, they aren't disrespecting their grandparents or parents---they are just traveling down a different road. I feel like there is a lot more consideration nowadays of the wildlife and the environment and what we can do to be more sustainable in the long-term.

Dawn

Dawn,
I don't see it amongst the prominent wheat growers or even OSU Ag. The corporate interests and other big Ag interests have subjugated academia.