Need to kill clover in pasture

crunchie01

Have field I reseeded 2 years ago and the grass is choked by Clover and buttercups. Need the pasture for horses, and clover in quantities can be harmful. Have been trying to find a herbicide that will kill both clover and buttercups. Hygrass has been suggested, also Grazon90, Any ideas?

reilig

crunchie01 wrote: »

Have field I reseeded 2 years ago and the grass is choked by Clover and buttercups. Need the pasture for horses, and clover in quantities can be harmful. Have been trying to find a herbicide that will kill both clover and buttercups. Hygrass has been suggested, also Grazon90, Any ideas?

MCPA will stun clover and kill buttercups. The clover will grow back in small quantities, but will never be as plentyful.

If buttercups are a problem, you should think about putting lime on it.

grumpyfarmer

reilig wrote: »

crunchie01 wrote: »

Have field I reseeded 2 years ago and the grass is choked by Clover and buttercups. Need the pasture for horses, and clover in quantities can be harmful. Have been trying to find a herbicide that will kill both clover and buttercups. Hygrass has been suggested, also Grazon90, Any ideas?

MCPA will stun clover and kill buttercups. The clover will grow back in small quantities, but will never be as plentyful.

If buttercups are a problem, you should think about putting lime on it.

Is it not illegal to spray grass with mcpa now or is that cmpp?

Tipp Man

A heavy dose of pig slurry will kill of the clover naturally

As will plenty of bagged nitrogen

Conflats

grumpyfarmer wrote: »

Is it not illegal to spray grass with mcpa now or is that cmpp?

CMPP

crunchie01

thanks. have used Mortone on buttercups before with fairly good results on buttercups but don't think it did much good against clover. Did this field last autumn after it had been cut, when there was plenty of growth and foliage, but both buttercups and clover as bad as ever. maybe got dilution wrong. 2 pints to 15 gallons is what I used with a quad boom sprayer. Put 1 bag per acre of granular lime in March and P and K, but no nitrogen - probably should have to discourage the clover, I had sheep grazing during the winter and too much nitrogen isn't meant to be good for young horses. Plan was to spray around now - then spread 18/6/12 a week or so later, which is more or less what you all suggested. It was a matter of finding the most effective herbicide.

bogman_bass

why so eager to kill clover?

crunchie01

Thats what everybody asks!! I need the field for horses and red clover is harmful to them. A little is no problem, but at the moment the grass is being smothered by clover and the only grazing is the clover, cant use the field for the horses so need to cut it back to give the grass a chance.

Farmer Pudsey

crunchie01 wrote: »

thanks. have used Mortone on buttercups before with fairly good results on buttercups but don't think it did much good against clover. Did this field last autumn after it had been cut, when there was plenty of growth and foliage, but both buttercups and clover as bad as ever. maybe got dilution wrong. 2 pints to 15 gallons is what I used with a quad boom sprayer. Put 1 bag per acre of granular lime in March and P and K, but no nitrogen - probably should have to discourage the clover, I had sheep grazing during the winter and too much nitrogen isn't meant to be good for young horses. Plan was to spray around now - then spread 18/6/12 a week or so later, which is more or less what you all suggested. It was a matter of finding the most effective herbicide.

P&K by itself benifits clover more than grass as the grass need nitrogen to compeat with the clover and clover also needs lime more than grass so you did everything to help the clover in the spring. I would not put out any more P&K as there may be enough already.

MCPA and 2-4D by themselves will stunt clover in a combination they will kill it, Dicampa and CMPP ( high load micram) will kill clover however even if you spray now it will be weeks before it die's back unless you cut it for silage/hay after a few weeks or let cattle into it. Also maybe use a wetter/adhesive in the spray

Markcheese

P and k good , nitrogen level low,slightly higher ph and sheep grazing over winter is almost a recipe for growing clover the only thing more you could have done would have been to give a light cut after the clover flowering , (usually from now on) .... but since you don't want clover....
How long since you reseeded, red clover and the productive whites aren't usually that persistent, although with near perfect conditions .....???

LostCovey

How real is the risk from red clover to horses? Spraying horse pasture with chemicals to kill clover seems a totally OTT reaction to a theoretical risk, that mostly relates to alsike clover, which we do not have in Ireland. Here's a seeding mix for horse pasture that recommends including 8lbs red clover seed/acre!

http://ohioline.osu.edu/agf-fact/0012.html

LC

crunchie01

I am now totally confused. Reseeded april 2009 with special mix for horses from Germinal which they recommended as it contained no clover. Spread lime and 10.10.20. Seed germinated then we had very dry cold weather which set it back. Redshank took over the first year and grass seemed never to get a chance to establish. Obviously my main mistake was not enough nitrogen...though I did spread 10.10.20 in 2010. I gathered from certain websites that alsike is prevelant in Europe, but that our ordinary red clover is also harmful in quantities. I have clover through other pastures but also plenty of grass, but this field is thick with clover and buttercups with very little grass, hence the decision to spray...and I hate using chemicals. Maybe I should rethink!