Docks
- (Broad-leaved and Curled - (Rumex crispus) )

• A broad-leaved dock (Rumex obtusifolius) can produce 60,000 seeds.
• A curled dock can produce 40,000 seeds.
• Seeds can remain viable for up to 80 years.
• It has been estimated that there can be up to approximately 12.5 million seeds/ha in top 15cm of soil.
• They can regenerate shoots from tap roots.

Why control Docks?

• They thrive in intensively used and highly fertilised grassland.
• Docks seeds generally don't survive low pH silage (pit silage). They can survive baled silage or haylage.
• They compete aggressively with grass for light, water and nutrients especially in high Potash (K) soils.
• They provide just 65% of the feed value of grass from the same area.

Treatment options for Dock control

• Topping is not enough as the deep roots allow them to recover and set viable seeds.
• Intensive grazing or silage cutting doesn’t work.
Corteva Agriscience solutions include Doxstar Pro, Forefront T ,, Pastor Trio, ProClova XL and Grazon Pro.
• Use Envy and Pastor Trio and ProClova XL in newly sown leys to control seedling docks.
• Use Forefront T when dealing with high populations and long established populations in grazing ground, otherwise use Doxstar Pro.

Common Chickweed

- Stellaria media

• Annual broad-leaved weed.
• Propagates by seed in the soil.
• Common in autumn reseeds and under-sown grass after cereal crop has been removed.
• Capable of slow growth in low temperatures of winter.

Common Chickweed

• Rapid, prostrate growth.
• Competes aggressively with grass for light, water and nutrients.
• Can cause significant losses of yield especially when establishing newly sown leys.
• Up to 25% reduction in silage yield has been recorded (SRUC Technical Note 2014).
• Presence in grass for silage increases difficulties when wilting.
• Presence in silage disrupts fermentation.
• Presence in hay increases difficulties when drying.

Treatment options for Common
Chickweed control

• Grazing by cattle or sheep can graze chickweed out. Use adults animals, as young stock can experience digestive
issues.

Newly Sown Leys (Grassland <12 months old).

Envy is the perfect choice for early spring control of chickweed. One of its powerful components, unlike most, works at much lower temperatures, meaning that chickweed can be sprayed from 1st February onwards, before it becomes a major problem.

Later on in the spring when other weeds begin to grow either Envy or Pastor Trio are ideal products to consider.

Whilst neither are clover safe, they do offer short re-sowing intervals of 12 weeks, if clover needs to be re-introduced.

In new leys with clover, ProClova XL can be used to control small chickweed.

Established Grassland (Grassland >12 months).

Where chickweed is a problem in established grassland, both Envy and Pastor Trio can be used or where stronger perennial weeds, such as docks, are also present options include Doxstar Pro.

Creeping Thistle

Cirsium arvense

• A creeping thistle can produce up to 5,300 seeds, remaining viable for 10-21 years.
• Even a root fragment can remain viable for several years.
• Spreads primarily by vegetative growth of roots. The root system can grow as much as 6m horizontally in one season,
with most patches spreading at the rate of 1-2 m/year.

Spear Thistle

Cirsium vulgare

• Biennial plant.
• Grows from seed - forms a rosette in first year and flowers in second year.
• Produces a tap root up to 70cm long.
• Each plant produces up to 8000 seeds viable for up to 3 years.
• There can be as many as 16 million seeds/ha.
• Seed dispersed by wind up to 30m.

Why control Thistles?

• Established creeping thistle has extensive underground roots and competes strongly with grass.
• Spear thistle in the second year can spread to cover more than a square metre of ground, thus posing a serious threat to
pasture productivity.
• Low infestation of just 1% will justify treatment.
• I n addition, thistles can facilitate the spread of diseases such as orf in sheep and lambs.

Treatment options for Thistle control

• Topping may be appropriate as a first step treatment to get different growth stages to the same stage ready for treatment with a suitable translocated herbicide.
• Preferred solution when thistles are the primary target is Thistlex. If other weeds are also present use Forefront T, Pastor Trio or Grazon Pro.

Common Nettle

Urtica dioica

• Propagates mainly from extensive creeping rooting stolons.
• New plants develop from root sectionschopping them up does no more than multiply the problem.
• They will grow up to a height of 1m, eventually forming dense beds, which spread out across the field.
• Germination occurs if the soil is disturbed or sward open.

Why control Common Nettle?

• They make pasture unpalatable.
• They reduce the grazing area available to livestock.
• They reduce grass yield.

Treatment options for Common Nettle control

• Cutting clumps up to three times per year over successive years, first cut before flowering.
• Nettles are best controlled when young and actively growing at 15-25cm high.
• Corteva Agriscience solutions include Forefront T, Doxstar Pro and Grazon Pro.

Creeping Buttercup

Ranunculus repens

• Perennial plant.
• Propagates from extensive creeping root stolons and seeds.
• Grows up to a height of 50cm.
• Flowers from May to September.
• I ndicative of poorly drained, acidic soils.
• Acrid tasting and generally avoided by livestock.
• Can cause contact dermatitis.
• Can cause stomach irritation.

Why control Creeping Buttercup?

• To improve grass quality and palatability.
• To improve grass production (rejuvenation).
• To lengthen the life of the pasture.

Treatment options for Creeping Buttercup control

• Improve soil structure and drainage.
• Improve pH of soil.
• Corteva Agriscience solutions include Envy, Pastor Trio and Forefront T.

Dandelion

Taraxacum officinale

• Perennial plant.
• Has a deep tap root.
• Flowers from May to October.
• Propagates via seed that has adapted to wind dispersal.
• Can produce up to 400 seeds per flower head.
• An individual plant can produce between 2,000 to 12,000 seeds.

Why control Dandelion?

Dandelions:

• Compete for light
• Compete for water
• Compete for nutrients
• Compete for space.

This competition means that they reduce:

• Grass quality
• Grass yield.

Treatment options for Dandelion control

• Avoid overgrazing.
• Improve soil fertility.
• Corteva Agriscience solutions include Envy, Pastor Trio and Doxstar Pro.

Common Ragwort

Senecio jacobea

• Biennial plant.
• Rosette stage in year 1.
• Taller flowering plant (up to 1m tall) in year 2.
• Damage to the crown will force growth habit to switch to perennial and the plant will flower every year.
• Severe cutting will keep the plant in the rosette stage.
• Live plants poisonous to livestock but not palatable in this state.
• Damaged/dying plants pose the most danger to livestock as they become more palatable.

Why control Ragwort?

• Poisonous to livestock, particularly when wilted, damaged or dead.
• Horses are particularly susceptible.
• Dried ragwort is a danger in hay.
• Ragwort present in silage will spread its poisonous alkaloids through the silage pit.

Treatment options for Ragwort control

• Uprooting ragwort will prevent spread of seed, although roots will remain.
• Cutting not a recommended option as assists persistency.
• Grazing by sheep in winter and early spring, but only for light infestations.
• Forefront T is the best herbicide treatment for grazing pastures grazed by cattle or sheep. Treat when plants are young and actively growing as this will speed up the senescence process.