Weeds

     The battle against weeds is a constant one in agriculture. Dealing with them early in the year can make the job much easier. Here are a few that can be dealt with currently.

     This is what is referred to colloquially as wild mustard. It has a much more specific name, as the mustard family is a pretty big one, but it's common name will do for the purposes of this post. It makes decent feed for stock when in a pasture, but is less than ideal. It must be removed, mostly because it competes with the crops and will lower yields.

     This is cheatgrass. Early in the year it makes great feed for stock, but if you look closely you'll see the problem. The wispy parts that hang off of some of the stems are the seeds. These are the kind of pokey little seeds that get stuck in your socks. Once the seeds develop the cheatgrass dries out and is not nearly as useful as feed. In a field, pasture or even in the grazing ranges, cheatgrass can retard the growth of plants that are useful all year long.

     These little kochia (pronounced kosha) weeds show how certain species of weeds grow in such close proximity that few other plants can grow. Most of these little plants won't survive. The point of growing like this is that most of the plants that will survive will be kochia, not a crop plant. Kochia can be a pretty good forage plant for stock feed, so long as they don't get too big. As you can see, though, kochia doesn't play well with others. It's also highly prolific and must be dealt with before it can start crowding out more useful plants.

     While small now, these plants get in the way of the plants that farmers use to bring food and materials to the market. So they have to go, at least from the fields. And they're much easier to deal with now, before they get big.