It has been a severe 5+ year drought in Southwest Oklahoma. As Pasture and native grasses suffer and struggle to survive, ponds and creeks go dry I have found myself fighting many weeds that are normally not a serious problem in this area.
Ragweed, sliver leaf nightshade, devils claw, plains coreopsis, and bind weed seem to thrive under these supper dry conditions.
Cows, donkeys, horses, even goats will not eat most of these undesirable weeds. So, I have been conducting chemical warfare using mostly 2-4-D. I’m not a big fan of any of the man made herbicides. However 2-4-D is a selective broad leaf herbicide that is not to hard on any type of grass plants but works well in killing ‘most’ broad leaf weeds.
Developed in the 1940’s I only buy 2-4-D manufactured by Dow company. They produce a very clean 2-4-D that does not contain any of the dangerous dioxins found in the 2-4-D products imported from Chinese companies selling 2-4-D on the U.S. markets.
Most of the notorious weeds are in full bloom now and are easier to kill at this stage of growth preventing them from developing viable seeds.
As soon as I get a good kill I will hook on to my 7 foot shredder deck and set it’s cutting height at about 6 inches and top cut what little grass there is and top cut my weed crop.
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Town & Country Gardening 
Wow I cannot imagine a 5 year drought!! I’m from England, we get a LOT of rain here. Good luck with the farm 🙂
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Re linnetlane – Thanks for taking time to visit my tiny dry-land blog and for your comment(s)
As it always is people whine about the weather, it’s to wet, to dry, to cold or to hot 🙂
It’s really nothing new, we have a 5 to 10 year dry period about every 50 years. It’s been almost 60 years since our last severe drought in the 1950’s.
Happy gardening
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Sometimes you have to resort to chemical warfare.
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Sorry one more question…do you buy it local or online? I also want to use the original from Dow Corning and hopefully get one pasture done this weekend. I have 3 that I rotate them on so when ones open the other two are recovering and growing again for 2 weeks so this will work fine for me!!
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Hi,
I live in a farming area of Oklahoma, hence there are many farm stores that carry a wide assortment of herbicide and pesticide brands at a reasonable price.
They contain the maximum strength active ingredients available across the counter. Be careful..
Read and carefully follow mixing and usage directions contained on the labels directions.
Note that Dow just like Monsanto may be marked under several different brands names. Read the fine print on the label to determine just who and where the chemicals were manufactured.
Also try searching (google) different brand names ‘before’ buying.
Happy safe 4th of July
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Thank you!!
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the drought is pretty horrific at the holler as well…..scary~
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Thanks for visiting my little blog.and for your comment(s)
I hope you soon get some much needed rain.
Happy safe 4th of July holiday
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Thanks for that tip!! I was just discussing we have to do something to get this buttercup outbreak under control on our horse pastures. It must spread with the manure as it is no where else but our darn pastures. I will try to find out more information on the 2-4-D to see if it eliminates it. Do you shut your pastures down after use for a period of time?
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Re Chase & Chance’s Mom – Thanks for your visit and comment(s)
Owing to the longevity (70 years) and extent of use, 2,4-D is among the most thoroughly studied herbicides with respect to environmental properties. Degradation of 2,4-D is rapid (half life of about 6 days ) please look at this chart from Penn state University.
http://extension.psu.edu/agronomy-guide/pm/tables/table-2-6-9
Depending on the chemical maker time from application to grazing generally runs from 7 days to zero days.
Personally I wait 6 or 7 days.
Hope this is useful.
Happy safe 4th of July holiday
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