I have been battling about an acre of foxtail barley in a 2 acre pasture for the past 5 years and I finally decided to hire out to try to eradicate it. Here is my plan, and if anyone has had to deal with this awful grass, please let me know what you did.
Here’s my game plan:
3 rounds of glyphosate (just the foxtail barley), 3 rounds of fertilizer (whole pasture), irrigate, fall seed and irrigate to germinate anything before winter, then heavy seed in the winter/spring and see what comes in. Spot spray foxtail with glyphosate until it’s gone.
So the 3 rounds of glyphosate and fertilize in-between will take out the existing plants, then anything that germinates with the fertilizer and irrigation will also get wiped out from the next 2 rounds of glyphosate. Then for the last round of fertilizer, prep the ground for good seed and irrigate as much as possible before winter.
Roughly 3 weeks in-between sprays, which will take me to late August for prepping and seeding. I’m in the north, and we have irrigation until the end of October or so. I am seeding with a western wheatgrass, crested wheat grass, alfalfa mix, and I will add some brome in the spring.
Anyone ever deal with anything like this for small pasture management?