Strategies for controlling docks.

[Skintagain]

Nah stick with your grazing rats

Smaller than sheep

 

[Water Wheel]

Graze and weed wipe

In my experience wiping is just a one year fix. I’ve been wiping for 20 years+ , hardly sprayed at all.

Half the spraying we have done is because large leaved clover has taken over in silage fields, drowning the grass.

Each year it does a good job if you catch the docks right and the field looks a lot better, but 10% escape all the time and still manage to seed , so the long term problem still builds up.

So wiping contains the problem, keeps fields looking acceptable but will not solve the problem, but the clover thrives.
It's cheap and doesn't take long.

It makes me feel better reading that even regular spraying is not a total solution either

 

[The Agrarian]

No [emoji23]
If you notice on the chemical containers, they say ‘controls’ docks rather than ‘kill’!
I have used Forefront this time on the worst fields, cleaned them up really well. See if they come back next year

They will. Neighbour uses it. And he has plenty of docks returning.

 

[milkloss]

They will. Neighbour uses it. And he has plenty of docks returning.

the problem is usually because the big docks have left a bare patch for more to grow which is why it’s far better to kill them as young as possible….. ideally as seedlings.

 

[Skintagain]

the problem is usually because the big docks have left a bare patch for more to grow which is why it’s far better to kill them as young as possible….. ideally as seedlings.

20 grow on the patch

we have taken on some land that has some serious docks in the soil. Any bare soil and 20 docks are up the day after. Must have been left to seed year after year. must Be horrendous if all the farm is the same

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Fluroxypyr. Starane or hudson.
Clover it dies.
It does actually seem to slowly recover

That's what I use , spray few weeks after first cut wipes them out and is cheap enough which helps , Im on Minstrel which is the same stuff , clover will come back but takes time

 

[Walwyn]

Things are going well. Organic matter levels around the farm are now above 10% and improving due to spreading our composted Seperated dung and good use of our “pokey” dirty water. We have managed to reduce our nitrogen usage too.
however docks under this system are becoming a real problem and only to getting worse as we spread more compost.
would love to hear about people’s successful control programs.
thanks in advance.

Are you making any additions to the separated solids in your compost?

 

[ollie989898]

The way forward is to either: get good at routine spraying, accepting that the clover will be mullered OR reseed and possibly bring in growing wheat (barley/oats) as a wholecrop in some paddocks rotationally.

You will kill docks and most perennial grassland weeds in a wholecrop cereal as easily as winking and it gives a good break.

You really must spray your new leys at the early stages. A bit of polo and hudson sorts out seedling docks, dandelions and the like really nicely. You can always stitch in some clover seed later on.

Once a paddock becomes really weedy (particularly weed grasses) then you can tear it up again.

I can tell you which farms are basically docks/thistle/buttercup free around here because they are the ones I used to walk and they all rotated their leys and included other crops. The cereal cleans the land up, you play your new ley afterward and the fields will stay weed free for years. It really is magic. If you can't or won't use the wholecrop then sell it to a neighbour. In fact, you could let them have the field for a year and absorb the cost of the chemistry and ploughing etc in the process. You then get a nice clean stubble ready by 1st August which all you need do is run a sumo or similar through shallow before establishing your new ley with a harrow/seeder box thing.

Even x2 goes with forefront (£25+/acre each!!) mind will be cheaper than a full blown reseed. Don't be afraid of grassland weed control. 4 passes of doxstar or pastor will still be cheaper than a reseed. Just don't listen to direct-drill Derrick who seems to want to do everything on the cheap.

 

[lazy farmer]

The way forward is to either: get good at routine spraying, accepting that the clover will be mullered OR reseed and possibly bring in growing wheat (barley/oats) as a wholecrop in some paddocks rotationally.

You will kill docks and most perennial grassland weeds in a wholecrop cereal as easily as winking and it gives a good break.

You really must spray your new leys at the early stages. A bit of polo and hudson sorts out seedling docks, dandelions and the like really nicely. You can always stitch in some clover seed later on.

Once a paddock becomes really weedy (particularly weed grasses) then you can tear it up again.

I can tell you which farms are basically docks/thistle/buttercup free around here because they are the ones I used to walk and they all rotated their leys and included other crops. The cereal cleans the land up, you play your new ley afterward and the fields will stay weed free for years. It really is magic. If you can't or won't use the wholecrop then sell it to a neighbour. In fact, you could let them have the field for a year and absorb the cost of the chemistry and ploughing etc in the process. You then get a nice clean stubble ready by 1st August which all you need do is run a sumo or similar through shallow before establishing your new ley with a harrow/seeder box thing.

Even x2 goes with forefront (£25+/acre each!!) mind will be cheaper than a full blown reseed. Don't be afraid of grassland weed control. 4 passes of doxstar or pastor will still be cheaper than a reseed. Just don't listen to direct-drill Derrick who seems to want to do everything on the cheap.

How will that work with sequestration?

 

[sidjon]

How will that work with sequestration?

You'll probably get extra if you lower your SOM as a Arable farm and build it back up as a grazing farm

 

[Extreme Optimist]

You'll probably get extra if you lower your SOM as a Arable farm and build it back up as a grazing farm

You would have to laugh if it wasn't so tragic and likely to be true!!!

 

[lazy farmer]

Where is the economic threshold where it becomes necessary to be concerned with them on your farm?

That’s a very good question. What I keep coming back to us that each acre Is apparently worth £15,000.

 

[Y Fan Wen]

I suppose, if you have bracken growing in your pastures, it would be allowable to use Asulox.

 

[YELROM]

That's what I use , spray few weeks after first cut wipes them out and is cheap enough which helps , Im on Minstrel which is the same stuff , clover will come back but takes time

What rate do you spray the minstrel at?

 

[Derrick Hughes]

What rate do you spray the minstrel at?

Need to check label but think it's 2 litre Ht

 

[YELROM]

Need to check label but think it's 2 litre Ht

Yes thats what the label says but didn't know if you had had success at lower rates
Sprayed ours today @1.5ltr

 

[milkloss]

Have heard of some spraying at 1lt but expect to do it twice in one year at that. Probably works well with a really bad infestation where either some are sheltered from the spray by others or new docks will grow in the gap left.

 

[YELROM]

Have heard of some spraying at 1lt but expect to do it twice in one year at that. Probably works well with a really bad infestation where either some are sheltered from the spray by others or new docks will grow in the gap left.

I aim on spraying ours twice, can’t seem to get them all at the same stage to spray and have them cut twice

 

[Rob91]

It's nice to see you conventional folk struggling with them, we're organic and spend many weeks picking the roots out of ploughing

 

[ollie989898]

Minstrel et is so cheap you can't go wrong even if you spray them twice.

Use plenty of water, steady spraying and use an adjuvant. I can't stress this enough. Grassland spraying is totally unlike spraying in a usual crop because you are looking at weeds often a serious root mass involved, they haven't grown from seed.