Our pasture looked nothing like that! Honestly, the only way to eradicate the buttercups is to spray out the pasture and start over. Unfortunately, if the seed is in the soil, they’ll come back. A controlled burn may be the only way to destroy the seed.
It’s the soil. It’s naturally acidic with poor drainage and compacts easily. Buttercups love that.
With time, I feel confident our pastures will be fine. But it’s going to take a lot of rehab, regular management, and we will still probably have the problem to a degree judging by every other field in the immediate area, managed or otherwise.
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Being the PNW, we have acidic soil too. I do wish you luck in your journey.
Be very very careful with dicamba! It will volatilize very easily, and can be deadly to any nearby oak trees.
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So interesting that you say this. We have one of those propane powered weed burners, and have attacked the drylots with it to kill weeds, particularly invasive buttercups. That seems to REALLY work. I don’t know if it makes sense to burn the whole field, but maybe? I know it will also kill beneficial bacteria near the surface, but it might be a better solution than weed spray.
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the bacteria will regenerate soon enough (It also burns bad germs as well)
Aha. Well, that explains it. That’s exactly what I have, too.
I’m going to try one of those weeders you can use standing up. I had no idea such a thing existed.
not sure if they still exist, but there once was a dandelion popper that had prongs go into the soil with a little lever to step on.
The weeding stick is as old as farming! Our Grandparents were clever! (I wish I could find a stash of old garden tools as my grandma had!)
We tried the propane burner. It did work, but was pretty labor intensive. I only mentioned burning the field because that is the only way to deal with seed in the soil. It was kind of an “out there” idea, but probably not practical.
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Looks like the wild turnips that are common here. Wonder if buttercups and wild turnips are similar. Off to Google
While I totally agree with you, it does work on a small scale. I have to walk through about 75’ of pasture to get to the barn from my house. When I walk back and forth, I’ll pull a few buttercups at a time. That part of my pasture has only a few buttercups compared to the rest of the pasture due to my hand-pulling.
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I had buttercups in my pasture for several years. I was able to get rid of them by mowing the pasture continuously for a few years. Never sprayed or overseeded and they eventually disappeared. I never saw a horse eat them so I wasn’t overly worried about them. I had lots of wild flowers in my pasture for about the first 3 years but they seemed to all eventually disappear with consistent mowing.
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lol, not the one I thought about,
but that will do.
my MIL had one of the modern ones and LOVED it.
But she has ADHD or something, I bet she got over using it really soon.
My fields were also this solid yellow that first spring. It was such a surprise! 
I started spraying the next year. Just plain ol 2,4-D. As early as I could once I started seeing green out there, made sure to do it before they started blooming. There were a few spots I missed that did bloom (it can be so hard to see where you’ve been, even with that indicator dye stuff) and I went back out with a backpack sprayer of crossbow and hit anything yellow.
The next year was MUCH improved. I did the same thing with the 2,4-D. Didn’t need the crossbow. Same story the year after.
This is where we are today. There’s a scattering of individual buttercups out there, and I have some new weeds to identify & figure out how to address, but the pasture is SO improved with just a bit of herbicide. Our soil is just terrible here, but this field actually managed to lower my hay bill last year for the first time!
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You really can lime anytime, but better to do it right before a rainy day so your grass does not get burned if it is warm out. Ask me how I know…
I never did a soil test, I am a rebel. But 40lb pellet lime is like 4 bucks a bag and I enjoy yard work. I have been at my place 3 yrs. First year weeds n buttercups eveerryyywwhheeree!!!
I lime the hell out of my pastures in spring and fall. I mow really short, drag w a chain harrow with the tines down and make ruts, then lime, then go over it with the tines up to push it in. Early spring around early March, I spray pasture pro and keep the horses off that pasture for about a week and make sure it rains. The next rotation of that field I put down cheapo triple 12 fertilizer and the lime so early weeds are dying but grass is growing. Around this time of yr I graze hard, mow super short and put down Teff, believe it or not it grows into a hay field almost all summer, its hard to keep up with the mowing! In fall I do the lime, buy whatever grass seed is on sale, usually rye or fescue and put that down early October.
3 yrs later of doing this and picking my pastures twice a week, I have barely any buttercups and the 2 boys cannot keep up with the grass, unless it snows they ignore the hay I put out for the most part and I only have about an acre or so fenced n divides into 3 pastures! I compost my manure and either give it away or spread it on the neighbors hay field in the fall and winter. We finally got a little tractor with a FEL so this is the first yr I can turn my piles enough to make the compost good enough that I feel it is acceptable to use on my fields so I am trying that instead of the triple 12 hehe.
I am in east TN next to a creek so clay soil and low ph, the dry lot by the creek gets moss all over thats how low our ph stays here. How large of an area are you trying to revamp? I looovvee looking at projects and getting ideas!
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@carman_liz how do you spread the lime, seed and pasture pro? Your soil sounds very similar to mine.
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Don’t laugh but…the pasture pro, 2 gallon sprayer and I
ride around on my 11 yr old jd riding mower on a 3 setting for speed and spray and pump until it runs out. Then I leave the mower where the sprayer ran out and go refill, then pump pump passes over n over till the field is done.
The first yr I push spread the lime and fertilizer. Then I bought a tow behind spreader for the riding mower. It broke a month ago and I do not want to spend the money on a pto driven one right now so I am back to push spreading lol. The Teff seed I use a little hand spreader and walk and crank the handle since the seed is so small.
I have seen a brand called Chapin that has a spreader that you can set and then it does not start spreading until you are moving, and it has an auto stop feature so when you stop your mower, 4 wheeler, etc, it stops spreading. I want one!!!
I know it seems dumb of me to have the tractor and not use a big cone spreader, but I smaller pastures and the riding mower I feel like I can be more careful with and see how much and where I spread.
Plus…diesel cost…oouucchhiee!!!
Idk whyy those pics went in like that, but that is the little middle field they are currently chomping down that I seeded with annual rye in the fall, its basically hay haha.
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And yes, there are still some buttercups, but I do not think they will ever fully be gone, but they are much better than they were. Plus I hate spraying late since I am trying this Teff in the summer thingy for mister fatso pony.
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We have sprayed and we have limed and we have mowed, and we still have buttercups. We live on rolling hills and the soil drains well - no standing water. The buttercups have exploded the last few years as we have had lots of rain. We mow but unless we practically scalp the pastures, we still see yellow in early spring to late spring. The only thing that seems to kill them off for the season is hot and dry. Once we get to about May and things dry out and the temps start hitting the 90s, the buttercups die off.
Going forward, I may start spraying proactively and keep spraying as they do come in rather thickly. But I’ve notice that when I’ve sprayed widely or had the pastures sprayed - usually with Grazon - the stench is breath stealing and it seems to retard grass growth for a while, like it stuns the planst. Not my favorite thing to do. It does help but I’m not crazy about the chemicals.
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