Grow more grass with weed control — 2X to 3X

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Grow a pound of weeds, lose a pound of grass. Control a pound of weeds, gain a pound or more of usable forage.

It’s about that simple, say pasture experts. While a pound of grass may not sound like much, those pounds add up — usually doubling to tripling forage in trials.

Range & Pasture Steward over the years has reported many trials that demonstrate grass yield from pasture weed control. Those are summarized again below.

A 100 percent increase in grass per acre means you’ve doubled carrying capacity compared to your formerly weedy pasture. At 200 percent, that’s 3X carrying capacity.

In these calculations, we’re omitting two outliers where weed control produced 13 pounds and 10.5 pounds of grass for every pound of weeds controlled. Without those, the average is 1.5 pounds of grass per pound of weeds controlled.

One set of numbers in the table is instructive for timing. Look for the asterisks near the middle of the far-right columns.

In two consecutive years — one dry, one wet — Texas A&M AgriLife Extension specialists David Bade and Paul Baumann ran a series of weed control demonstrations. Among other things, they measured effects of different spray timing: early application on weeds 3 to 6 inches tall and late application on weeds 8 to 12 inches tall.

In wet years, early spraying yielded slightly more grass. In dry years, early spraying yielded substantially more.

Other weather factors here may be lost to time but notice that 2X to 3X grass production isn’t unusual.

Unfertilized bermuda grass gained 131% grass production as a result of weed control.
Fertilized bermuda grass gained 284% grass production as a result of weed control.

INCREASE IN GRASS PRODUCTION AS A RESULT OF WEED CONTROL WITH A HERBICIDE: 25 TRIALS Forage Lb./A
State	Grass	Fertilized?	Treated		Untreated		Weeds Controlled	Grass Increase	Grass yield per lb. of weeds controlled	Grass Increase percent
State	Grass	Fertilized?	Grass	Weeds	Grass	Weeds	Weeds Controlled	Grass Increase	Grass yield per lb. of weeds controlled	Grass Increase percent
MS	bermuda	Yes	2906	323	756	1717	1394	2150	1.50	284%
MS	bermuda	No	1920	213	830	1893	1680	1090	0.65	131%
MS	bermuda	Unknown	1937	141	692	1337	1196	1245	1.00	180%
AR	bermuda	Unknown	8086	82	2893	5445	5363	5193	0.97	180%
TX	Coastal	Yes	4069	25	2124	1960	1935	1945	1.00	92%
TX	Coastal/native	Yes	8323	0	2587	7452	7452	5736	0.77	222%
TX	Coastal/native	Yes	7610	1494	2587	7452	5958	5023	0.84	194%
TX	Coastal/native	No	4987	0	1385	4252	4252	3602	0.85	260%
TX	Coastal/native	No	4898	1266	1385	4252	2986	3513	1.00	254%
TX	Coastal/native	Yes	2142	209	645	1698	1489	1497	*1.00	*232%
TX	Coastal/native	Yes	881	333	645	1698	1365	236	**0.17	**37%
TX	Coastal/native	no	1330	202	377	1127	925	953	*1.00	*253%
TX	Coastal/native	No	477	377	377	1127	750	100	**0.14	**27%
TX	N midgrass	No	3969	0	1726	1572	1572	2243	1.40	130%
TX	Klein	No	7443	65	5103	975	910	2340	2.60	46%
TX	Klein	No	2200	140	830	1200	409	3382	8.20	107%
TX	OW bluestern	No	5075	18	2842	746	728	2233	3.00	79%
TX	N shortgrass	No	1900	265	1200	2400	2135	700	0.33	58%
TX	N shortgrass	No	2720	0	1060	3040	3040	1660	0.55	157%
TX	L bluestern	No	9700	0	3250	3200	3200	6450	2.00	198%
TX	Seed mix	No	4737	322	2800	1260	938	1937	2.00	69%
TX	bermuda	Unknown	4682	0	1391	253	253	3291	***13.00	237%
TX	bermuda	Unknown	4049	0	1391	253	253	2658	***10.50	191%
TX	bermuda	Yes	6738	0	469	4384	4384	6269	1.43	1337%
TX	bermuda	no	3886	0	50	1980	1980	3836	1.94	767%

*Early Application in a dry year

**Late Application in a dry year

***Outliers not included in yield calculations

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