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What Should I Do About My Pasture Weeds?
Back in the Spring of 2010, the Agriculture Research Service (ARS) in Miles City, Montana put out a press release announcing an online calculator that could tell producers how many more cattle they could raise if they were able to eliminate one or two widespread invasive plants. Matt Rinella, the rangeland ecologist who developed the tool, used it to estimate that ranchers in a 17-state region could raise 200,000 more cows a year and save tens of millions of dollars if leafy spurge were eliminated. Of course how to eliminate leafy spurge, or any other weed, is a problem we've yet to solve.
Can't Beat 'Em? Eat 'Em!
As many of you already know, I developed a method to teach cows (or whatever livestock you raise) to eat weeds. So when I saw the ARS announcement I looked at Matt Rinella's results from a completely different perspective. If cattle can eat leafy spurge (and I have actually trained cattle to eat this plant), that means that there is enough forage availabl
You Can Teach 25 Cows to Eat Weeds in 8 Hours Over 7 Days For Less Than $100
but It turns out that it takes 10 years of data before farmers and ranchers will consider something new, and then another 10 years after that until the practice is common. Have they no sense of curiousity? or adventure? no courage? no common sense? *sigh* God help us…
I prefer to think that it’s just animal/human behavior. Change is hard, new things are risky, and we need proof that something is safe before we make a change. Knowing the timeframes lets me work with folks to speed up the process a bit. 🙂
Great article, Kathy. Free feed under a cows nose. Like so many other things we need to do, it only takes management.