Baymule’s Pasture Management (or MISmanagement)

[Baymule]

Hazine is digging at the earth mounds in the pastures. I thought they might be fire ants hills but there are no ants near them. She smells along the ground near the mounds and then starts digging. She digs fairly large holes about 12-18" wide and 12-18' deep. Sometimes she digs them wider. Then I see her sticking her head down inside the holes like she is catching something and eating it. I looked up crawdads and they are supposed to be freshwater crustaceans like mini lobsters. Another info spot said they like to live in the mud.

If you have lots of crayfish in your field, maybe you could dig them up and sell them. I wonder if coyotes are digging the up and eating them.

These crawdads are a different variety than the ones raised to eat. They are an opaque whitish color with blue on their claws. I haven’t seen any coyote or deer sign since I got that field fenced in. I’m thinking maybe raccoon.

Hazine might be going after gophers

 

[Weldman]

Instead of fighting the crayfish, the flooding and the thistle just put levees up and start a crayfish farm Just go out there with a canoe dropping traps down and picking them up few days later. You will be the only one on the block jumping for joy when the next flood comes through

 

[Blue Sky]

Hubbs is thistle chopping too. I do a few but impingement on both shoulders makes it rough. I make a salad dressing of salt, horticultural vinegar and dish soap to put on the thistle stumps. My sheep will nibble the blooms and sometimes the early leaves. We got here in late summer’22. We had thistle and dewberries (wild blackberries). Imagine a pasture covered in tough, thorny vines the thickness of paracord and 1 - 2 feet high. It was very hard for me to walk in it with my knees messed up. The sheep cleaned it up in about 6 months. Dewberries don’t have reliable fruit and nothing you could call a crop. They are presently trying to sneak into my thornless blackberry patch. They’re also in patches around the yard.

 

[Baymule]

Today I worked all day, picking up the thistles I chopped on Monday. Even chopped off the stem, the stalks put everything they had into producing seed from the blooms. As I picked up the stalks, I sprayed the thistles with Grazon.

The blooms have turned into white fluffy seeds that float on the wind.

The stalks have water in them. Ants are all over them, there are ant hills next to the thistles. I wonder if the thistles are a source of water or nutrients for the ants.

I put the wand in the stalk and sprayed the Grazon. I sprayed the leaves and I put the wand on the ground right where the stalk grows out of the ground and sprayed.

The dry thorns are worse than when green. Dry thorns break off and stick in my gloves.

I picked up 9 bags of thistle stalks and seed heads today. I’m tired. Only got the front field done.

 

[fuzzi]

Today I worked all day, picking up the thistles I chopped on Monday. Even chopped off the stem, the stalks put everything they had into producing seed from the blooms. As I picked up the stalks, I sprayed the thistles with Grazon.

The blooms have turned into white fluffy seeds that float on the wind.

View attachment 116902

The stalks have water in them. Ants are all over them, there are ant hills next to the thistles. I wonder if the thistles are a source of water or nutrients for the ants.

View attachment 116903

I put the wand in the stalk and sprayed the Grazon. I sprayed the leaves and I put the wand on the ground right where the stalk grows out of the ground and sprayed.

View attachment 116903

The dry thorns are worse than when green. Dry thorns break off and stick in my gloves.

View attachment 116904

View attachment 116905

I picked up 9 bags of thistle stalks and seed heads today. I’m tired. Only got the front field done.

I don't envy you. I've been digging up trumpet vines whenever I see them, but it's like playing Whack-a-Mole. At least they don't have thorns.

 

[Baymule]

My neighbors stopped yesterday evening when I was packing bags in the trash can. They have thistles too. Bless their little pea pickin’ hearts, they didn’t know what thistles are. They do NOW. He and I walked out in their field so he could look at them up close. He yelled, SH!T!!!!! These are thorny as F!!!!!!!

Ya’THINK?

I explained NOT to mow them at this point or they would release millions of seeds and give them even more thistles. I told them to cut and bag the bloom/seed heads, then come back and spray the plant. Wear long pants, long sleeve shirt and leather gloves. They are city come to the country and just have no idea. But at least they sincerely want to learn.

 

[farmerjan]

Thank GOD we don't get the bull thistles here... or at least WE don't have them. Bad enough to get the canadian thistles... they are just getting started... We had 30 last night here at the house... DS said the ground looked like snow out there for the frost... slows things down alot.