Section16cattleco’s Blog

As I was out baling hay tonight I made a few observations that brought some loose end theories of mine together.

 I have been thinking for awhile on what purpose if any weeds like thistles play in our environment and why are they here. As farmers we have battled weeds over and over every year since we broke the first tall grass prairies. I am not sure what the proper definition of weeds actually is but basically they are anything other than the crop that is being grown in that field. Think about that for a minute. Because after you think about it you will see the depth in which we have single handedly changed Mother Nature in less than 100 years.

 The reason for my above comment is that before we started breaking prairie and farming it with grain crops there where many species of plants growing on the prairies. Many different types of grasses, legumes, forbs and wildflowers all shared the same soils. So in realizing that why then do we find it so amazing that Mother Nature is trying to diversify her soils by giving us what we call weeds? Our soils were never meant to continuously grow single plant species over mass acres of land.

 I have spent most of my working life being paid to advise farmers on how to kill weeds and have been very good at it. I also don’t enjoy many weeds in which I find myself spraying them to eliminate them from my fields and am quite sure if I continue to grow grain crops this will be a never ending battle in which will cost much money and much of my time. I also want to say that I have zero problems with people who spray weeds and I think that it will need to continue at some rate as long as we have people on this earth that need to eat.

 What I am starting to ask myself though is what is Mother Nature telling us? Is she trying to tell us that the current path we are on of single crops year after year is not the proper way? Is she telling us that in order to keep our lands and soils productive for many years to come we need to practice more biodiversity? Is she telling us that we have abused our soils and that weeds are just a normal healing process in order to return organic matters to our soils? I believe now that all of the above are correct. And this is why.

 I have a real sour spot on my farm that is low and wet and has never produced anything that I can remember since I was a little kid. But yet my grandpa, uncle and I had continued to till this spot in the spring, plant it, watch it grow to weeds, spray it and drive over barren dirt each fall with the combine. How Dumb!!! What did we think? That all of a sudden that little patch of soil was going to suddenly become ok to raise corn and soybeans? That some miracle was going to happen and it would drain, flush all of the salt out and raise a crop? I guess we did but I am telling you it never happened.

 Instead I got sick and tired of it and planned a new seeding of alfalfa and grasses to include this spot to see if I could get some type of hay to grow in it so I could at least get some type of product of this patch of land. What has happened now after four years has been very amazing for me to see and has taught me how Mother Nature will heal the land if you just leave it alone and give it a chance.

 The first year nothing grew in this spot except a few cockleburs. The second year I had another good crop of cockleburs and little grass but still a lot of bare dirt and alkali. The third year brought me a very thick crop of cocklebur and somewhat nice stand of grasses. Each year I had just let everything grow instead of spraying the weeds. I cut all the hay around this spot and decided to just leave it alone and see what happened. I also figured that as long as something was growing it was at least putting a root into the ground which would both open the soil up a bit and also provide some much needed organic matter. Organic matter from cockleburs is just as good as organic matter from brome grass.

 Now tonight as I was out baling I was baling around this spot and I really noticed the difference. There are now no cockleburs, a little foxtail barley, timothy, brome, reeds canary and some native sedges growing in this spot. Again I have not cut it for hay choosing to leave the plant matter to die and treat the soil this fall. But I was just amazed on how Mother Nature found a “weed” that could grow in this soil that we had abused for so many years and used the “weed” to heal the soil, making it a productive soil again. But the difference is that I gave it a chance and found a system in which it could be successful. I gave up on the idea that it would raise corn or soybeans and found a crop in which would someday thrive in this type of soil. I can only imagine that in a few more years this patch will be a very productive hay meadow in which will not resemble the bare dirt it once was.

 This all has me believing that maybe when we have a bunch of thistles in our pasture or a bunch of waterhemp in or beans that maybe we should stop and ask ourselves some questions. Maybe we need to ask ourselves if what we are actually doing is right and is it helping to keep our soils productive for future generations. I am sure that 400 years ago there were very few if any non-productive patches on the tall grass prairie.  

 Last fall my pasture had grown into a mess of thistles. I had always done a good job of keeping the thistles sprayed bit last year they just got way out of hand and was not possible to get ahead of them. So I decided to let them go and have them sprayed in the fall and ask myself some questions on how I was treating the land and what was Mother Nature telling me on my grazing practices. I agreed with her that I had been pushing my grazing a little too hard and was letting my cows into the grass to soon in the spring and leaving far too long in the fall. So after spraying it last fall I decided that no matter how tempted I was to turn the cows out in the pasture this spring I was not going to do it. Instead I let the pasture heal itself and rest. I kept my cows in a drylot and just put them in the pasture a week ago. I was amazed at how fast the grass grew and how few thistles were out there this year. This is just another example of how we need to ask ourselves sometimes what are we doing wrong that Mother Nature gives us weeds to try and heal her soils.

 After my pasture experience I have decided that I have found the reason for thistles. When we abuse the land so badly by overgrazing Mother Nature has no choice but to grow a plant that will not be grazed. She places thistles in our pastures so that cattle can not eat them and instead they will grow nice and tall with deep tap roots that pull nutrients from deep in the soils. Then the thistles die and return to the earth, decaying and releasing the nutrients back into the soil in an effort to heal the soil. It is the same thing that happens in well managed pastures and hay fields except Mother Nature is saying your dumb ass and since you cannot handle the temptations of all that extra forage to graze your cows on I will place these prickly “weeds” here instead so that you have to remove your grazing cattle and give the land the rest it needs. Make sense?

 Next time you see a mess of weeds on your farm ask yourself a few questions, then make a few changes and give the land the time and care it needs to heal.

Erik