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Seeding Cool-season Grasses to Suppress White Locoweed (Oxytropis sericea) Reestablishment and Increase Forage Production

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Michael H. Ralphs ,
Thomas A. Monaco ,
Jose R. Valdez  and
David Graham
Michael H. Ralphs*
Affiliation:
U.S. Department of Agriculture–Agricultural Research Service Poisonous Plant Laboratory, Logan UT 84341
Thomas A. Monaco
Affiliation:
U.S. Department of Agriculture–Agricultural Research Service Forage and Range Laboratory, Logan UT 84322
Jose R. Valdez
Affiliation:
Forest Range and Watershed Department, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1472
David Graham
Affiliation:
New Mexico Extension Service, P.O. Box 428, Clayton, NM 88415
*
Corresponding author's E-mail: Michael.Ralphs@ars.usda.gov
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Abstract

Livestock poisoning can occur on short-grass prairies when locoweeds are actively growing in spring before warm-season grasses begin growth. White locoweed grows in early spring, completes flowering and seed production by early summer, and goes dormant. Perennial cool-season grasses may provide competition to suppress locoweed or reduce its reestablishment following control. Furthermore, these grasses may provide alternative palatable forage to livestock early in the spring. The objective of this study was to suppress white locoweed reinvasion by seeding cool-season grasses at two mixed-grass and two short-grass prairie sites. White locoweed and associated species were controlled with glyphosate (1.1 kg ai/ha) and picloram (0.38 kg ae/ha) in 3 by 15 m plots. The plots were seeded to ‘CDII’ crested wheatgrass, ‘Vavilov’ Siberian wheatgrass, ‘Luna’ pubescent wheatgrass, ‘Bozoisky’ Russian wildrye, smooth brome, ‘NewHy’ wheatgrass, sideoats grama, and ‘Immigrant’ forage kochia. In addition, a native grass plot, treated with picloram to control locoweed without harming the native grasses, and a nontreated control plot, were established in each replication. Establishment of crested wheatgrass, Siberian wheatgrass, and Russian wildrye averaged 60% over all sites. The other treatments had establishment rates < 30% and were considered unsuccessful. Forage production of Russian wildrye was 2,962 kg/ha, Siberian wheatgrass was 2,736 kg/ha, and crested wheatgrass was 2,339 kg/ha, compared with 1,051 kg/ha for the nontreated control. Mortality of locoweed seedlings was greatest in the pubescent wheatgrass seeding. All seeded species suppressed reestablishment of indigenous locoweed plants.

Keywords

Glyphosatepicloramwhite locoweed, Oxytropis sericea Nutt. Ex Torr. & Gray OXRMAcrested wheatgrass, Agropyron cristatum (L.) Gaertner × Agropyron desertorum (Fisch. ex Link) Schultesforage kochia, Kochia prostrata (L.) SchraderNewHy wheatgrass, Pseudoroegneria spicata (Pursh) A. Love × Elytrigia repens (L.) Nevskipubescent wheatgrass, Thinopyrum intermedium (Host) BeauvRussian wildrye, Psathyrostachys juncea (Fisch.) NevskiSiberian wheatgrass, Agropyron fragile (Roth) Candargysideoats grama, Bouteloua curtipendula (Michx.) Torrsmooth brome, Bromus inermis LeysserWeed competitionweed ecologypoisonous plant
Type
Research
Information
Weed Technology , Volume 21 , Issue 3 , September 2007 , pp. 661 - 669
Copyright
Copyright © Weed Science Society of America 

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