With the end of a drought and the onslaught of rainfall this fall and winter, pastures, roadsides, and lawns are full of spring flowers of all colors.

It makes for a delightful sight being that last year at this time fields remained dormant and dull due to lack of rainfall. This succession of drought to abnormally wet season lends itself to a great flush of winter and spring weeds.

This may be a photographers dream, but brings concern to local ranchers.

Weeds require very few requirements for establishment, of which, sunlight, moisture and soil disturbance are most important.

With prior drought conditions, most of the grasses and other vegetation have been removed by grazing or other means, leaving bare soil.

This bare soil which was once shaded and outcompeted by grasses now receives sunlight and moisture, setting up the prescription for weed growth. Practices such as aeration, which many producers see as a necessity for hay land production cause soil disturbance and increase weed production.

Many have noticed the grass responding slowly this spring and immediately think aeration is the cure. However, grass growth relies on soil temperature, moisture and sunlight. This year is off to a slow start to meet those requirements and grass production has reflected that.

Aeration is a useful tool, but only when a compaction problem has been identified. More times than not the only thing accomplished is producing croton for one of the best dove hunting spots around.

A good rule of thumb for determining if treatment of weeds is needed in hay land or pasture is if weeds meet or exceed 20 percent cover. As this percentage increases, the economical gain of spraying grows larger and larger.

A good question to ask yourself when considering spraying is if you can potentially produce 1000 lbs. of weeds per acre, will the weed control cost less than the 1000 lbs. of forage that could be produced?

If this number puts you in the black, then recent research which has shown production increases as much as 3-7 lbs. of forage per pound of weed killed should increase profitability even greater.

Once the decision has been made to control the weeds, the weeds must then be sorted into two groups; perennials and annuals. Annuals sprout from a seed yearly, and to disrupt the cycle, the seed production phase must be excluded. By spraying annuals as early as possible, the seeding phase is usually easily excluded, thus removing seeds for the next year.

Perennials on the other hand grow from a root year after year and are much harder to control. These plants must be sprayed in full leaf or blooming form. This is known as the translocation period in which the herbicide is trans-located from the leaves to the roots for a full kill. If sprayed too early, only top kills will result.

This will definitely be a banner year for weed production in South Texas and producers must keep a step ahead of the up and coming weeds. Remember, the best control of weeds is in prevention. Limiting overgrazing and soil disturbances will provide the best weed control economically available.

For more information, come by at 401 East King, Suite 100 or call at 592-0309 Ext. 3.