Pasture Guard vs. Crossbow

[farmersamm]

Getting ready to rehab the hay meadow. Soon as the ground dries out, we need to get in there with a rented skid steer, and my Turbo Saw........to cut saplings, etc. It's also infested with Blackberries. These will have to be sprayed.

I'm looking at two products. Pasture Guard, and Crossbow.

https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/agrian-cg-fs1-production/pdfs/PastureGard_HL_Label1m.pdf

https://www.cdms.net/ldat/ldC4L001.pdf

The important ingredient is Triclopyr. Most importantly............the concentrations of the chemical in the product.

Crossbow is half the price of Pasture Guard, but contains about 1/3 the amount of Triclopyr. So................it's NOT cheaper. And.......Crossbow contains 2-4-D, which is useless to me for the intended purpose. 2-4-D doesn't control Blackberries.

The haying/grazing restrictions for Pasture Guard appear to be fairly benign.................but like any chemical, I personally don't really like it. It's another "is what it is" things I guess.

Test results for Pasture Guard seem to be quite promising............

https://wood.agrilife.org/files/2011/03/Blackberry_Result_Dem_Report_1.pdf

Of course...............like usual............this is gonna require going through the sprayer that's been sitting unused for about 30yrs. It's set up with booms, but for this stuff, I'm thinking a spray gun is the ticket. Some of the affected areas are near on 4-5 feet tall.........making spray booms useless. It's not the time of year to spray Blackberries, so that's a plus. They respond best in Late Summer-Early Fall I believe.

Panhandle - Solutions for Your Life - University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences - UF/IFAS

UF/IFAS Extension bring the power of UF’s research and education to every county in Florida. We support farmers and growers, home and business owners, youth and families through science-based programs, information and accessible expertise.

nwdistrict.ifas.ufl.edu

I suppose the plan is.....................cut all of the saplings, then cut what I can for hay.............then come back in the Fall to spray the Blackberries. Or hope for a selective wildfire Actually a stupid thing to wish for...........people lose property during wildfires.

 

[Steve in VA]

Getting ready to rehab the hay meadow. Soon as the ground dries out, we need to get in there with a rented skid steer, and my Turbo Saw........to cut saplings, etc. It's also infested with Blackberries. These will have to be sprayed.

I'm looking at two products. Pasture Guard, and Crossbow.

https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/agrian-cg-fs1-production/pdfs/PastureGard_HL_Label1m.pdf

https://www.cdms.net/ldat/ldC4L001.pdf

The important ingredient is Triclopyr. Most importantly............the concentrations of the chemical in the product.

Crossbow is half the price of Pasture Guard, but contains about 1/3 the amount of Triclopyr. So................it's NOT cheaper. And.......Crossbow contains 2-4-D, which is useless to me for the intended purpose. 2-4-D doesn't control Blackberries.

The haying/grazing restrictions for Pasture Guard appear to be fairly benign.................but like any chemical, I personally don't really like it. It's another "is what it is" things I guess.

Test results for Pasture Guard seem to be quite promising............

https://wood.agrilife.org/files/2011/03/Blackberry_Result_Dem_Report_1.pdf

Of course...............like usual............this is gonna require going through the sprayer that's been sitting unused for about 30yrs. It's set up with booms, but for this stuff, I'm thinking a spray gun is the ticket. Some of the affected areas are near on 4-5 feet tall.........making spray booms useless. It's not the time of year to spray Blackberries, so that's a plus. They respond best in Late Summer-Early Fall I believe.

Panhandle - Solutions for Your Life - University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences - UF/IFAS

UF/IFAS Extension bring the power of UF’s research and education to every county in Florida. We support farmers and growers, home and business owners, youth and families through science-based programs, information and accessible expertise.

nwdistrict.ifas.ufl.edu

I suppose the plan is.....................cut all of the saplings, then cut what I can for hay.............then come back in the Fall to spray the Blackberries. Or hope for a selective wildfire Actually a stupid thing to wish for...........people lose property during wildfires.

I'm interested to see how you work this out. "Selected wildfire"; how about a controlled burn? Around here you can occasionally coordinate with the volunteer fire company to do that. Not sure how they'll would work for you.

 

[NoDakInMN]

Now, this depends totally on your location and situation, but we would occasionally do controlled burns of pasture ground. That would eliminate various unwanted brushes and stimulated growth of some grasses. Some native grasses are genetically predisposed to benefit from occasional fires. It has the added benefit of no chemical carry over. Again, this depends totally on your ability to control the burn.

 

[Texgasser1]

I love controlled burns, The land always bounces back and gives us two fold. Eastern Texas.

 

[Brendon-KS]

When we're doing pasture clearing here we will never cut a deciduous sapling unless we have a bottle of Tordon in hand. Many species, including osage orange which is a significant problem here, will grow back as a bush if left untreated. Fortunately our worst problem, cedar, doesn't require treating as coniferous trees don't grow back from the stump.

Prescribed burning is a critical pasture management tool here in Kansas - look up "flint hills burning". Several million acres are burned in this region each year to prevent the intrusion of invasive species.

 

[Ellis Kinney]

I have spot sprayed horseweed with Crossbow with good luck. Just walking my fields with a pump up sprayer. My approach to saplings is to cut flush, drill a 1/2 inch hole in the stump and squirt with full strength Round Up. With a battery drill this goes really quick. I used it on Autumn Olive and bush honeysuckle and cedar and honey locust. 100% results using this method. Ellis

 

[IFF]

Consider making up your own version of Crossbow using Garlon 4 (60% triclopyr) and 2-4D ester. Unlike the amine version, 2-4D ester provides better efficacy at the expense of greater volatility (vapor drift). The ester version needs to be sprayed in cooler conditions, which fits in nicely with fall spraying for blackberry control. You can increase the concentration of triclopyr to your liking.

IFF

 

[Wdj]

A boomless nozzle might be useful. One nozzle can be elevated enough to do taller brush with a wide swath. Not as precise as a boom and they don't work well with wind but good tool in some situations. Cabbed tractor to keep it off of you would be good.

 

[cjunrau]

Getting ready to rehab the hay meadow. Soon as the ground dries out, we need to get in there with a rented skid steer, and my Turbo Saw........to cut saplings, etc. It's also infested with Blackberries. These will have to be sprayed.

I'm looking at two products. Pasture Guard, and Crossbow.

https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/agrian-cg-fs1-production/pdfs/PastureGard_HL_Label1m.pdf

https://www.cdms.net/ldat/ldC4L001.pdf

The important ingredient is Triclopyr. Most importantly............the concentrations of the chemical in the product.

Crossbow is half the price of Pasture Guard, but contains about 1/3 the amount of Triclopyr. So................it's NOT cheaper. And.......Crossbow contains 2-4-D, which is useless to me for the intended purpose. 2-4-D doesn't control Blackberries.

The haying/grazing restrictions for Pasture Guard appear to be fairly benign.................but like any chemical, I personally don't really like it. It's another "is what it is" things I guess.

Test results for Pasture Guard seem to be quite promising............

https://wood.agrilife.org/files/2011/03/Blackberry_Result_Dem_Report_1.pdf

Of course...............like usual............this is gonna require going through the sprayer that's been sitting unused for about 30yrs. It's set up with booms, but for this stuff, I'm thinking a spray gun is the ticket. Some of the affected areas are near on 4-5 feet tall.........making spray booms useless. It's not the time of year to spray Blackberries, so that's a plus. They respond best in Late Summer-Early Fall I believe.

Panhandle - Solutions for Your Life - University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences - UF/IFAS

UF/IFAS Extension bring the power of UF’s research and education to every county in Florida. We support farmers and growers, home and business owners, youth and families through science-based programs, information and accessible expertise.

nwdistrict.ifas.ufl.edu

I suppose the plan is.....................cut all of the saplings, then cut what I can for hay.............then come back in the Fall to spray the Blackberries. Or hope for a selective wildfire Actually a stupid thing to wish for...........people lose property during wildfires.

I am not familiar with blackberry. But for all scrub I have used 24d and diesel fuel. in 5 gallons of water a 8 oz soup can of 24d and 2 diesel fuel. then walked around spraying wet everything I want to kill. I have had great luck with that. As far as grazing i never gave it much thought just sprayed and left. I also know that if you put the salt block in areas of heavy scrub it will get trampled and die a lot quicker and usually after 2 years can move to another spot.

 

[MARK ROBKE]

I have used both. I like Pasture Guard for weed control, especially tall iron weed. Cut the pasture and allow the weeds to start to grow back, then spray them late July early August. But I have used Crossbow on fence lines, and it kills briars(blackberries) dead right now. Since it has 2 4 d in it, it will take care of most weeds. It sounds like you got a lot of brush, woody trees, and such to kill off. I would use the Crossbow. Mark.

 

[charlie n]

As far as Crossbow, don't knock it till you try it. Generic Crossroad is just as effective for half the price.

 

[farmersamm]

Thanks for all of your observations as to your own results, and suggestions. All of which is helpful. This is completely new to me. I've never had to deal with Blackberries before. Sort of a side note.............I'm seeing them on a lot of pastures..........never saw that before. Must be something to do with weather changes..................or????????????? There have been some real changes in the past 5ish years around here.

I think the birds are one of the real culprits too. They eat the damn things, and spread them.

 

[E.B. Haymakin']

Getting ready to rehab the hay meadow. Soon as the ground dries out, we need to get in there with a rented skid steer, and my Turbo Saw........to cut saplings, etc. It's also infested with Blackberries. These will have to be sprayed.

I'm looking at two products. Pasture Guard, and Crossbow.

https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/agrian-cg-fs1-production/pdfs/PastureGard_HL_Label1m.pdf

https://www.cdms.net/ldat/ldC4L001.pdf

The important ingredient is Triclopyr. Most importantly............the concentrations of the chemical in the product.

Crossbow is half the price of Pasture Guard, but contains about 1/3 the amount of Triclopyr. So................it's NOT cheaper. And.......Crossbow contains 2-4-D, which is useless to me for the intended purpose. 2-4-D doesn't control Blackberries.

The haying/grazing restrictions for Pasture Guard appear to be fairly benign.................but like any chemical, I personally don't really like it. It's another "is what it is" things I guess.

Test results for Pasture Guard seem to be quite promising............

https://wood.agrilife.org/files/2011/03/Blackberry_Result_Dem_Report_1.pdf

Of course...............like usual............this is gonna require going through the sprayer that's been sitting unused for about 30yrs. It's set up with booms, but for this stuff, I'm thinking a spray gun is the ticket. Some of the affected areas are near on 4-5 feet tall.........making spray booms useless. It's not the time of year to spray Blackberries, so that's a plus. They respond best in Late Summer-Early Fall I believe.

Panhandle - Solutions for Your Life - University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences - UF/IFAS

UF/IFAS Extension bring the power of UF’s research and education to every county in Florida. We support farmers and growers, home and business owners, youth and families through science-based programs, information and accessible expertise.

nwdistrict.ifas.ufl.edu

I suppose the plan is.....................cut all of the saplings, then cut what I can for hay.............then come back in the Fall to spray the Blackberries. Or hope for a selective wildfire Actually a stupid thing to wish for...........people lose property during wildfires.

One of the reasons I keep around and old John Deere aw disk is fire breaks for burn piles and controlled burns. Grass grows back next year. If burned in fall it doesn't interfere with growing season.

 

[Wdj]

As far as Crossbow, don't knock it till you try it. Generic Crossroad is just as effective for half the price.

If I remember correctly, Crossroad used the lower volatility 24D. Less likely to damage your neighbors grape vine. As you say, just as effective.

 

[Wdj]

Thanks for all of your observations as to your own results, and suggestions. All of which is helpful. This is completely new to me. I've never had to deal with Blackberries before. Sort of a side note.............I'm seeing them on a lot of pastures..........never saw that before. Must be something to do with weather changes..................or????????????? There have been some real changes in the past 5ish years around here.

I think the birds are one of the real culprits too. They eat the damn things, and spread them.

We've always had lots blackberry here in the PNW but the last few years they've gone absolutely bonkers. Maybe they like the increased CO2 in the atmosphere.