Can anybody help me out in identifying the weed below? Property is in Washington County and it's everywhere. The cows won't touch it. The land is mine but the cows are not. They are doing fine, but this stuff is annoying. Thanks for the help.

Looks like what we call milkweed down here. Stuff is everywhere. Shreds easy, kills easy, but cows won't give it a look at all. Goats may (sometimes I've heard it referred to as goatweed, but that may or may not be the same plant).

I mow it down with the rest of the weeds in my front pasture.

What he said ^

Doves love this stuff.

Last year we didn't weed spray, and had a ton. Doves were all over it during the winter dove season.

Thanks everyone... Looks like I'll be waiting until mid Sept to mow it.

We call it doveweed, I think most people call it goatweed. Doves do love it so you could leave it around if you plan on hunting. Otherwise I cant remember the chemical we've used on it, but as said above they are really hard to totally get rid of. We usually just shred them down and do so again once they grow back.

Goatweed

A weed of many names apparently....Teaweed is what we call it.

If you just show goatweed a container of 2,4-D, they start to wilt...

It is easily controlled by 2,4-D, or shredding.

Quote:

---

Woolly croton.

---

Correct answer here. Croton capitatus is the scientific name of this one.
There are 4-5 types of croton in Texas & all are good for birds. Teaweed, goatweed, Prairie Tea, doveweed are all common names for the various species & what you may call it depends upon where you were raised or who taught you. Common names are pretty worthless in this way.

Doveweed
Just shredded a bunch of it in my pastures these past few days.

You'll never get rid of it completely, the seed can be in the ground for years and still be viable. My Grandpa used to say you could dig a pond 20 ft deep and have goatweed growing in the bottom before it's filled with water.

Ever see the piney woods after a forest fire or controlled burn? Goatweed will be everywhere before anything else even germinates.

Na Zdrav 87 said:

---

Doveweed
Just shredded a bunch of it in my pastures these past few days.

---

Shred for dove? We've got a ton and never thought to shred it

Goatweed. Doves like it, but that's about it & it spreads big time. Hate that stuff

CenterHillAg said:

---

You'll never get rid of it completely, the seed can be in the ground for years and still be viable. My Grandpa used to say you could dig a pond 20 ft deep and have goatweed growing in the bottom before it's filled with water.

Ever see the piney woods after a forest fire or controlled burn? Goatweed will be everywhere before anything else even germinates.

---

I had quite thoroughly purged the pasture by a nearby 10 y/o stock tank of goatweed, but during the 2011 drought, was amazed that the area now exposed (where water used to be) had thick goatweed. I would have thought that impossible...

And as others have noted: an area under development, where it's been scraped and/or cleared....goatweed pops up.

Always called it doveweed growing up. Had a few pastures with tons of it and they were always our best dove pastures.

JokkerZ said:

---

Quote:

---

I had quite thoroughly purged the pasture by a nearby 10 y/o stock tank of goatweed, but during the 2011 drought, was amazed that the area now exposed (where water used to be) had thick goatweed. I would have thought that impossible...

And as others have noted: an area under development, where it's been scraped and/or cleared....goatweed pops up.

---

It's been always like that.

---

Because there are billions of seeds in the ground. When a area is disturbed it creates an environment for,them to grow. Over grazing can do,the same thing

thann07 said:

---

2-4D kills it, sure, but the rest of the seeds just start growing a month later. We've got it bad (years of heavy fertilizer followed by overgrazing). As much as I don't want to put out the herbicides, I feel like I've got to.

---

thann,

I'd be curious to know what your strategy will be. If you put some P+D down, will the 'D' kill it now, and the 'P' give you the residual control?

Yes, I've got some too in Central Texas. It's got a funny smell when it gets shredded.

Picloram will have a pre-emerge impact on some weeds, no doubt. It is Hell on legumes for some time. ALWAYS use a good surfactant when killing croton - it is a water repelling machine.

With all the non-stop rainfall since the OP started this thread, every seed in the world has germinated and presented more problems in the Bermuda meadows than we have seen at one time. A few thistles must have generated a billion seeds last year and most sprouted in the fall/winter. Luckily we caught them in large rosette stage and controlled them with GrazonNext HL.
Then, after the first cutting in late May, the small headed foxtail grass came up with a vengeance. We didn't catch them in time so the 2nd cutting has a lot of it.
Surprisingly, the goatweed wasn't any worse then usual and 2,4-D took care of it. Like B-1 83 pointed out, the picloram in P+D persists as to possibly have a negligible effect on legumes, chicory and other broadleaves emerging later. Not to mention using the treated hay as mulch.

Good call on the mulch! It can darn sure be in the hay and leach out in a garden.

Paging GrapeSoda

Quote:

---

I'd be curious to know what your strategy will be. If you put some P+D down, will the 'D' kill it now, and the 'P' give you the residual control?

---

Can confirm, yes and yes provided you spray it during the growth stage. We always used to cut the P+D with more 2,4-D in a tank mixture. Didn't take much in good improved bermuda in moist sandy loam and if weeds were small... like 3/4pt of P+D and 1-1.5pt 2,4-D Amine. If mature, harder to kill weeds are in a pasture, we used to add 1-1.5 pints of P+D with another 1.5-2 pints of 2,4-D per acre. Current Tordon label says up to a pint of Tordon 22k + 34oz of 2,4-D per acre.

And forget having any clover if you use any picloram. If you want to save your clover, 2,4-D alone or GrazonNext works fine on doveweed in the early stages, if it's bigger I'd suggest Weedmaster. They claim grazon next can get to the roots in sandy soil (mixing it with dry fertilizer) but the results I have seen from that are very poor. Probably more likely that fertilized grass prevented germination of more weeds than active ingredient translocating into the roots of weeds.

If I was spraying pastures for General broadleaves and even some tough to kill broadleaves with no brush I would look at Sharpen. Somewhere in that 1-2oz/ac range would be a good rate.

Safe on grass and legumes (clover) so you will have plenty of options. Fully labeled now I believe. Excellent burndown if you need some good contact control.

Found this thread and wanted to bring it back to the surface. We bought a ranch and the pastures are overrun with goat weed. Bermuda grazing pastures and I want to get the Bermuda thick and try to control the goat weed. Dormant (or dead, I don't really know) stalks are everywhere and my thought was to mow them down and spray 2,4-D when they start growing in the spring. Any ideas?

Also should I overseed with more Bermuda after I spray in the spring?

Thanks!

Edit to add: we have cows in the pastures currently and they are all the Bermuda down so right now the only thing taller than a few inches is the goat weed.

Don't know anything about pasture management but pretty sure the goatweed you are looking at is dead. Mowing now seems like a waste of resources.

5C said:

---

Found this thread and wanted to bring it back to the surface. We bought a ranch and the pastures are overrun with goat weed. Bermuda grazing pastures and I want to get the Bermuda thick and try to control the goat weed. Dormant (or dead, I don't really know) stalks are everywhere and my thought was to mow them down and spray 2,4-D when they start growing in the spring. Any ideas?

Also should I overseed with more Bermuda after I spray in the spring?

Thanks!

Edit to add: we have cows in the pastures currently and they are all the Bermuda down so right now the only thing taller than a few inches is the goat weed.

---

you can mow now, but it doesn't really do anything, once they go to seed then there really isn't much else you can do unless you just don't like the stalks. Yes spray in the spring.

Also you probable should soil test. Normally weeds are signs of overgrazing and/or nutrient deficiencies.

You might think about a dormant season Roundup application. 95% of the weeds ppl start spraying in mid March are already germinated by mid - late January, and just waiting on warm temps to bolt. If you look closely, I bet you'll find them. I'd spray a 24 oz RU + a pint of D (ester) in a couple weeks. Spray your goatweeds in May with D, p+d, weedmaster, etc. No need to bush hog at all unless you just want some dirt therapy.

BQ_90 said:

---

5C said:

---

Found this thread and wanted to bring it back to the surface. We bought a ranch and the pastures are overrun with goat weed. Bermuda grazing pastures and I want to get the Bermuda thick and try to control the goat weed. Dormant (or dead, I don't really know) stalks are everywhere and my thought was to mow them down and spray 2,4-D when they start growing in the spring. Any ideas?

Also should I overseed with more Bermuda after I spray in the spring?

Thanks!

Edit to add: we have cows in the pastures currently and they are all the Bermuda down so right now the only thing taller than a few inches is the goat weed.

---

you can mow now, but it doesn't really do anything, once they go to seed then there really isn't much else you can do unless you just don't like the stalks. Yes spray in the spring.

Also you probable should soil test. Normally weeds are signs of overgrazing and/or nutrient deficiencies.

---

Property wasn't touched for 5+ years before we bought it.