1. Pasture Weed Control – Searcy County
Runsick, B.A.
Extension Agent, University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service, Searcy County,
Marshall, AR 72650/brunsick@uaex.edu
ABSTRACT NEEDS/GOALS IMPLEMENTATION
Control of common pasture The need exists to educate Cool season weed control demonstration
weeds is one of the biggest producers in the county on how conducted on producer’s fescue pasture
struggles facing producers in
gg g p to better control common, and containing red sorrel, wild carrot, cinquefoil, curly
g q y
Searcy County, Arkansas. A sometimes invasive, weeds in dock, and yarrow with 6 common pasture
variety of methods were used grass or grass/legume herbicide treatments and 1 control.
to educate producers on the pastures. This effort
benefits, both in forage quality encompasses educating Pasture Weed Control meeting held on March
and quantity, of controlling producers in a variety of areas 17, 2011 covering a review of the results of Figure 1
undesirable weeds in grass or including: weed identification, spring weed control demonstration, general
grass/legume pasture herbicide safety, sprayer weed control recommendations, and sprayer
systems.
y Among g these calibration, proper timing of
, p p g calibration (Figure 1).
( g )
methods were: a cool season applications, and justification
weed demonstration for weed control practices. The Two Private Applicator Trainings for licensing
containing 6 different University of Arkansas to purchase Arkansas Restricted Use Pesticides
herbicide treatments, a warm recommendation on pasture held on November 18, 2010 and February 22,
season weed demonstration weed control is that control is 2011.
with 6 treatments, replicated needed when the pasture
three times, a pasture weed consists of more than 25% Five local newspaper articles with timely
control meeting with undesirable species. After
species information and recommendations related to Figure 2
information concerning surveying pastures the pasture weed control.
herbicide recommendations previous year, it was
and sprayer calibration, determined that more than Multi –county Bermudagrass Production
newsletters containing 50% of farms visited needed meeting covering weed control as one of the
information on weed control some form of weed control. topics (Figure 2).
and demonstration results,
and articles in the local Seventy producers received a quarterly
newspaper with timely agriculture newsletter with pasture weed control
pasture spraying information. specific information.
Through these methods,
coupled with numerous phone
calls and one on one
consultations, the pasture IMPACTS
weed control program in As a result of this program, a marked improvement in weed control has been seen within the county. The best
Searcy County reaches most means of evaluation to determine the program’s effectiveness was simply through visual assessment while
producers in the county Of
county. traveling through the county, the number of recommendations given to producers, the number of one-on-one
the 617 farms in the county, consultations covering topics such as weed identification, sprayer calibration, and pasture assessment to
the agriculture newsletter determine if weed control was truly necessary. Improvement in pastures around the county was noted, and there
reaches 70 of those, and the has been an increase in number of producers seeking information pertaining to weed control.
news paper is distributed to
3500 in a county of less than Educational information on weed control reached 70 producers through the quarterly newsletter.
8,000. Several county A pasture weed control meeting targeting weed control and sprayer calibration was attended by 12 clientele
clientele have mentioned how Numerous phone calls from producers seeking recommendations
p p g
beneficial and pertinent th
b fi i l d ti t the Office walk ins seeking weed control information and recommendations
information in the news article Farm visits to determine if chemical weed control is needed and follow up recommendations
has been, and the county Producers have verbally mentioned the benefit of timely spraying recommendations in the weekly newspaper
office is known as the “go to” article.
place for weed control Both producers that attended the Bermudagrass Production meeting responded that they intended to implement
recommendations. better weed control management practices.