IkemanTx
5 year old buck +
I am slowly converting my family’s 40 acres back into prairie/savannah and have a major problem with cocklebur. Everyone I have talked to says properly timed broadcast spraying herbicides for multiple years is about the only way to tackle a problem like this.
The property is primarily used for recreation, with only a few months of grazing each year, the timing of which I should be able to control.
The property is heavy Blackland clay bottomland and stays quite soggy after rain events on wet years. For the last 30 years or so it has only either been baled or grazed (cotton or corn before that all the way back to the 1870’s), often times with pretty high stocking densities on it even with the ground saturated. My parents were essentially absentee landowners for 30 years and leased to the neighbor for whatever the Ag exempt taxes were. So, I know we have compaction and infiltration issues as well as a very high level of cocklebur seeds in the seed bank.
With the intent of converting back to tall-grass prairie, I plan to burn at least 5-10 acres of the place each year (first burn performed earlier this month)… which could cause them to explode even further.
What control mechanisms could I use to control the cocklebur, but not deplete the rest of the forb and broadleaf seed bank? Maybe controlling grazing timing and intensity? Mowing/topping at certain times? Spot spraying? Anyone with experience or knowledge with this particular plant would be appreciated.
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The property is primarily used for recreation, with only a few months of grazing each year, the timing of which I should be able to control.
The property is heavy Blackland clay bottomland and stays quite soggy after rain events on wet years. For the last 30 years or so it has only either been baled or grazed (cotton or corn before that all the way back to the 1870’s), often times with pretty high stocking densities on it even with the ground saturated. My parents were essentially absentee landowners for 30 years and leased to the neighbor for whatever the Ag exempt taxes were. So, I know we have compaction and infiltration issues as well as a very high level of cocklebur seeds in the seed bank.
With the intent of converting back to tall-grass prairie, I plan to burn at least 5-10 acres of the place each year (first burn performed earlier this month)… which could cause them to explode even further.
What control mechanisms could I use to control the cocklebur, but not deplete the rest of the forb and broadleaf seed bank? Maybe controlling grazing timing and intensity? Mowing/topping at certain times? Spot spraying? Anyone with experience or knowledge with this particular plant would be appreciated.
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