Nightshade in Hay?

LMK17

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We're going to have some hay cut next week on two of our paddocks. The pasture is mostly native grasses and forbs with a little bermuda thrown in. The only toxic weed that we have, as far as I can tell, is silverleaf nightshade. We have a couple of significant patches of it. Before we get the pasture cut, should I try and pull as much of it as I can? When it's in the ground, the animals ignore it, as there are lots of other options, but I wonder if they'd ingest more of it if it's mixed in hay?
 

Bossroo

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If anyone knowingly includes a known poisonous plant in their hay is practicing irrisponsible animal husbandry. Do anything and everyhing to get rid of any and all harmful ingredienats before cutting the hay field. Doing otherwise will be much more costly .
 

Baymule

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I have gotten black nightshade in hay, because the seeds sprouted and came up. To my knowledge, I didn't see it in the hay, no animals got sick, but I didn't have it "before" but I sure got it after. I pull it up. I take my wagon, gloves (because I have a strong reaction if the juice gets on my hands) and walk the place, pulling up nightshade. This time of year, I also pull up grass burrs which I despise. Last year I got a heaping wagon load of grass burrs, this year, hardly any.
 

LMK17

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Yeah, I suppose pulling it up is the way to go. Kind of a PITA-- it's spread out over 15 acres of pasture-- but better safe than sorry. We don't have that much nightshade, but it's in little pockets throughout the place. Anyway, we just got some rain, so pulling it should be a little easier now.

And sand burrs-- Blech! I've already started pulling those. They're nasty little buggers. :/
 

Baymule

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I found a cluster of grass burrs I've got to go pull up. If you stay on top of them, pull them up, it does reduce them.
 

Mini Horses

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Grass burrs --- cockleburs --- the constant cuss fest!!! :he

They hurt barefoot, tangle in a mane or tail, hurt your hands when you get hold of one. I cut, pull, burn. They reduce but just never go totally away. Still working on it for life.

Nightshade can kill a horse!!!! :( Pull it, burn it. I find some occasionally and am always looking for it. Often near a fence where birds like to "perch & plant". As it matures and the berries drop, more plants.

If you have "patches" of it. I would surround & not cut it in the hay or remove before cut. There are different types but all are an issue IMO. :idunno:old
 

LMK17

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Started pulling the nightshade and some more burrs tonight. I got a wheelbarrow full, but it didn't even make a noticeable dent in the issue. :confused: I think I underestimated the problem. :eek:

Pulling isn't feasible, but I won't spray, either. (It's an organic farm.) I don't have a bagger for my garden tractor, but I'm wondering if I could mow down the patches and then rake them up to catch any seeds before they sprout and spread the problem. I'll probably go through and broadcast some bermuda in the cut patches... Any major downside to this approach?

Or is there a better method?
 

Bossroo

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Sorry to say, but , In this case you have a catch 22 situation where the nightshade will be much worse next year probably by a factor of ten fold ++ since if you mow the nighshade, you will only scatter the seeds even farther . Also, when you mow , you only cut off the top of the plant and the remaining stem and roots will regrow. Been there , done that, so I bit the bullet and whent with spraying with a herbicide . It is called pay the price or go broke since you will not be able to utilise the pasture or hay field or if you do , your livestock will have four feet in the air. Best of luck !
 

Baymule

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Go back to pulling. Pull or spray. I don't use spray or poisons either, I have chemical problems and I don't need the exposure. So I pull.

Bossroo is right, you'll just scatter the seeds and make it worse.
 

LMK17

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Well, if I'm looking at this correctly, I won't scatter seeds (from the nightshade, at least) if I don't chop up the fruits. Currently, a minority of the plants have fruit on them. So if I pull just the plants with the fruit and then mow the rest, I won't scatter seeds. Right?

The way I see it, my bigger issue is that silverleaf nightshade has a big taproot and rhizomes. Judging from my experience today, it's going to be nearly impossible to get *all* the roots out of the ground. Even with a few inches of rain this past week, the pasture still isn't soft enough to pull all the roots easily. I ended up with a lot of broken taproots. :/ So whether I pull or I mow, I'm only going to get (more or less) the aboveground portion of the plants, and they're going to come back up from roots or stems. So then I either mow or pull again... If I stay on it, I should weaken and eventually kill the plants, but it's not going to be a one-shot deal either way.

Silverleaf nightshade is a tough bugger. Even with chemicals, it's a multistep process, from what I can tell. No matter the approach, I think I should couple it with efforts to improve the pasture in the areas where I currently have nightshade... Seeding and fertilizing + adding compost to give more desireable plants a chance to compete.

Thoughts?

As far as utilizing the pasture, my goats and cattle seem to stay away from the nightshade, so I really don't worry about them being out there with it. Hay is, of course, a different story. Any hay we cut will stay on our farm exclusively for our use. At this point, though, I'm either going to have to exclude the nightshade-infested patches when they cut or I'll just hold off on haying this year all together. We have plenty of year-old hay we could feed... Whether it's decent quality is a different story. I'd need to check.
 
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