Burned-out tire tracks in grass- any causes other than herbicide?

[HungarianHippo]

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Earleir this spring, we noticed a set of tire tracks where the grass had gone yellow, across our lawn and heading up to the hayfied. Spotty ‘covreage’ - there were places it was obvious, and other places you couldn’t really see any tracks. We have a beekeeper to whom we free-lease space on the property (and access to our clover!) for their bees, and in return we get delicious honey. The beekeeper is the only vehicle driving up that hill other than our ATV, and these were definitely standard on-road vehicle tires–not ATV tread width. I figured, well crap, he must have driven through a treated field before coming to my place. But it’s an isolated incident and the damage wasn’t extensive, and they’re really great guys to work with. So I didn’t raise a fuss. Well, it’s happened again-- there’s a new set of burned-out tire tracks (again going up to the field where the hives are. And I know the beekeepers were here within the last week because I can see their tire tracks in the hayfield going straight to the hives). And no one else has (legaL) access to the property, but of course we’re at work all day so who knows.

I reached out to the beekeepers today to alert them to the problem and sent the above pictures. His response: “I never rule anything completely out but I don’t know how it could be us. We would have to have wet herbicide on the tires. We do not use herbicides. We would have to contact it prior to entering your place. Just running down the road should wear it off anyway if we did contact it. We will be on the lookout though.”

I totally believe him when he says they don’t use herbicide–they’re an organic facility and super ‘green’. But is he right that even if there were incidental contact from another client’s field, the chemical would not persist on the tires? They’d be driving many miles to get to us, it’s not like they have clients on our road.

I wonder if we’re just seeing the impact of soil compaction? But seems inplausible to me that compaction would cause such a crisp line between dead/living grass. Or would it?

Or maybe we have someone trespassing, but you still have the fact that they’d be traveling miles over the road to get to us, and is Round-up really going to hang around on a tire for that long? And besides-- trespassing for what reason? It would be more understandable in morel or deer hunting season, but you’d need a blood transfusion after dealing with the thorns in our woods in summer. It gets almost impenetrable.

I’m stumped. Sure seems like Round-up on tires, but I believe my beekeeper when he says he doesn’t think it’s them.

Any ideas?

[Foxglove]

I think you are correct with “impact of soil compaction” conclusion. I am not a soil/grass expert, except that I am obsessed with pasture maintenance and have worked to have “perfect horse pastures” for 30+ years using various techniques and chemicals (and not chemicals, too, just to see what happens). I think what happened in your field is when the beekeeper drove over your grass, he did so at a time when the grass was at a vulnerable state --just emerging or the soil was slightly soft and muddy. There was damage to the grass stem. Now that the grass is fully growing, you see the damage compared to the grass that was undamaged.

The basis for my opinion is that this year, I sprayed my fields in early June --usually, I spray in early May. The spring was wet, so I couldn’t get into my pastures until June. By then the grass had grown to 6-10 inches. I drove my tractor and sprayer in my usual pattern, spraying all my fields. However, for the first time I can remember, even now, mid JULY I can see my tire tracks through the pastures. Where my tires crushed the new grass growth, there is a marked difference from the uncrushed grass. The grass is there --it’s just clearly been bent over at some point and crushed. It grew fine, just different.

I mow two pastures (the third is too big and hilly to mow, so I just let it grow its beautiful grass). The two mowed pastures had grass that “returned to normal.” I assume that is because my mower blades chopped of the bent or damaged grass blades.

FYI, I’ve heard (and seen a few WWW pictures) that the Oregon Trail that settlers took with their oxen and wagons to the West 150 years ago is still visible through the prairie grasses —their passage permanently damaged the grasses. The grass is there, grown back, but looks different than the surrounding grass.

Oh —Round Up on the tires theory —my experience is “probably not” —I’ve used RoundUp on m fence rows for years. The grow back is identical to the surrounding grass —my neighbor stopped using Round Up on her gravel drive to her barn (after the barn was taken down --horses moved away) --looks just like her yard now.

Anyway, that’s my guess --I suppose if you wanted to CSI the cause, you could find a lab on line that would analyze the grass and tell you if it was chemically damaged. That’s kind of common where I live when one farmer will spray with a herbicide or fertilizer and it will “drift” to a neighbor’s field and kill or contaminate his crops . . .and the organic peeps have to have chemical analysis done to “prove” the purity of their non-chemically treated produce.

[Simkie]

Another vote for just the weight at a bad time.

If the cause was herbicide, you wouldn’t have green grass on either side of the dead spot. It would be dead-dead entering the grassy area, fading to slightly dead to not dead. Can’t tell in the left picture, but in the right photo you have green grass, then dead, then green.

[HungarianHippo]

OK, this is reassuring. We’ve had a weird spring/summer, alternating between periods of way too much rain and then getting bone dry. The grass is probably a bit stressed to begin with. The tire marks are generally where the truck is making a turn, and less prominent where he was just rolling straight forward, which supports the theory that the grass is just getting physically damaged.

[hoopoe]

if you go to the BBC web site, there was an article about the hot dry weather producing an abundance of evidence of ancient ruins and settlements. The ground where compacted or trenched blanched out differently revealing outlines of settlements, some more than 4000 years old. These compacted spots in your property may be signs from a long time ago . Where the soil has been heavily compacted or rutted, will show different water retention, thus thriving ( or not ) grasses.

https://bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-44746447

[ShotenStar]

I third Foxglove and Simkie - the combination of damage and dry weather is creating the tracks. Right now Maryland is in a heat wave plus drought and even Husband Person’s lawn mower is leaving similar tracks in the lawn grass.

star

[HungarianHippo]

I checked with the extension office and they suggested that the root cause is a fungus.
http://iaturf.blogspot.com/2011/08/more-ascochyta-disease-across-state.html

In the linked article, it’s a perfect match visually for what we’re seeing, and given the very wet periods that allowed the fungus to flourish, followed by intense heat.

Mystery solved. I thanked my bee guy for his quick reply and let him know about the fungus.

[hoopoe]

https://bbc.com/news/uk-44767497

interesting info on the fungal issue. We dont get wild weather swings here we just brown out in the summer and bank, come October with the rains, the grass goes crazy

here is another item from the BBC about more finds. Its pretty interesting in itself.

[Dressage59]

We got the same set of tire tracks after driving our Kawasaki Mule from our driveway to the barn on a daily basis. The Mule is safer at the house, but with the tracks we elected to keep it at the barn out of site. Hope this works and that the grass grows back.