horse pasture INFESTED with queen annes lace

[Chickenlover0810]

I am going to be buying a horse soon, I have a pasture and the budget and time to buy one except I realized that my pasture is covered in queen annes lace and as we know it is VERY poisonous to horses, what should I do? the pasture is about one acre(the horse won't get ALL the pasture cause we will be splitting it with our 5 beef cows) what should I do? I know that if I till the pasture it might get rid of it temporarily but it will still eventually regrow! help me !!!

 

[Ridgetop]

Spray? Then dig out plants and burn?

 

[Mini Horses]

Well, either my minis don't know this, don't eat it and the goats do. It's gone.

Reportedly, Spring is time when toxins and cyanide are highest....when in bloom. Sheep and cattle seem unaffected. Odd since it affects nervous system.

Normally animals don't eat much if toxic. -- bad taste? Nightshade is more of an issue, IMO. But cut and recut. It should die out. With that number of animals and limited size of pasture, you won't need to worry much. You'll need a lot of hay.

 

[Grant]

If it’s taller than the grass, you could use a wick applicator on it with Roundup/water in a 50-50 mix.

 

[Chickenlover0810]

If it’s taller than the grass, you could use a wick applicator on it with Roundup/water in a 50-50 mix.

cant use round up, brother is allergic

 

[Chickenlover0810]

Well, either my minis don't know this, don't eat it and the goats do. It's gone.

Reportedly, Spring is time when toxins and cyanide are highest....when in bloom. Sheep and cattle seem unaffected. Odd since it affects nervous system.

Normally animals don't eat much if toxic. -- bad taste? Nightshade is more of an issue, IMO. But cut and recut. It should die out. With that number of animals and limited size of pasture, you won't need to worry much. You'll need a lot of hay.

my friends mom had the idea of hiring some goats to mow down our pasture a little bit

 

[farmerjan]

Queen Anne's Lace is NOT POISONOUS. There is a look alike.... Poisonous Hemlock that is the one that is very poisonous. If you check it out on google or somewhere there is one site that is something like tapellalaw.... has a comparison to the 2 plants. They are similar... but not the same.
We have tons of queen anne's lace here too. It is an invasive and a pita weed. But the cows all eat it and it gets rolled into bales of hay all the time.
Putting poisonous chemicals on your pasture is worse than just leaving it alone. One way to keep it in check is to mow so the heads do not go to seed. It does take up moisture, so better to keep it to a minimum anyway. Keeping it mowed off will keep it in check.

Are you putting the horse and 5 beef cows on one pasture field? You will not have to worry about it because they will have that eaten down in no time and it will never get a chance to grow anyway. In the early growth the tops can be eaten and you can eat the root too but it often is too tough and woody by the time the flowers appear.

 

[farmerjan]

Also, tilling will actually cause dormant seeds to sprout... it is very common in tilled/worked land so that is not a very good option either. Just mow it before seed heads.

 

[Mini Horses]

A note about Roundup....it will pass the placental barrier and kill a foal. In past I had an employee spray near a fence....against my directions!!! ...two mares ate there and within 24 hrs delivered dead foals that were a week from expected birth.

Needless to say that employee was almost buried with them!

Round up is not used here.

 

[Bruce]

But cut and recut. It should die out.

I have a bunch of QAL too. Cutting it just makes it do the Darwin thing and grow AND flower shorter. Sadly alpacas do not eat it. Doesn't seem like I should have to mow a pasture but they are picky. They'll let the grass they don't like as much grow a foot tall and nibble down the grass they do like as it grows.

Like @farmerjan said, 5 beef animals and a horse on a one acre lot will turn it into a dry lot in short order, won't have to worry about the PITA QAL, they'll walk it to death along with every other living thing.