I've had my place for three years and unfortunately, the grass condition has gone downhill since I bought it. The drought of last couple years and the related overgrazing (18 cows on 425 acres in north central hill country) in some areas has not been good.
I'm in the process of cross fencing and extending water to what will be the far pasture which I think will help reestablish some grass. There are still some decent areas of little bluestem, side oats, etc, but there are some large areas in a few fields in the bottom lane that has very little grass…maybe 10% covered or less. These areas are currently covered up in broomweed (which is actually widespread across the place this year even where grass covering was decent) . There are also 2 hopefully fairly isolated areas of about a half acre of sand burrs.
I plan on reducing the beard down to about 12 cows, clearing some of the areas of the ranch that are thicker in underbrush, plus the cross fencing will help give the native rangeland grasses a chance to bounce back.
But also looking to spray some herbicides on the broomweed and sandburrs to help jumpstart the process.
I have a tractor and Polaris ranger and was looking at a boom sprayer. Any recommendations for preference in a rig that sets up in bed of ranger vs mounted on three point hitch? Any recommendations on treatments and timing of treatment for broomweed and sandburs? Does it do any good to shred some of the thicker patches of broomweed this late? I'm some of the thick areas of broomweed there's actually some good grass underneath.
Lots of questions and would appreciate feedback. Just hate that the quality of the land has gone down under my watch.
I'm in the process of cross fencing and extending water to what will be the far pasture which I think will help reestablish some grass. There are still some decent areas of little bluestem, side oats, etc, but there are some large areas in a few fields in the bottom lane that has very little grass…maybe 10% covered or less. These areas are currently covered up in broomweed (which is actually widespread across the place this year even where grass covering was decent) . There are also 2 hopefully fairly isolated areas of about a half acre of sand burrs.
I plan on reducing the beard down to about 12 cows, clearing some of the areas of the ranch that are thicker in underbrush, plus the cross fencing will help give the native rangeland grasses a chance to bounce back.
But also looking to spray some herbicides on the broomweed and sandburrs to help jumpstart the process.
I have a tractor and Polaris ranger and was looking at a boom sprayer. Any recommendations for preference in a rig that sets up in bed of ranger vs mounted on three point hitch? Any recommendations on treatments and timing of treatment for broomweed and sandburs? Does it do any good to shred some of the thicker patches of broomweed this late? I'm some of the thick areas of broomweed there's actually some good grass underneath.
Lots of questions and would appreciate feedback. Just hate that the quality of the land has gone down under my watch.