Organic weed control

Two years ago, we participated in a county program in which workers came in and cleared out severely overgrown underbrush for purposes of fire mitigation.

Part of our contractual obligation to participate in this program is to maintain the condition of the property after the brush was removed (in other words, not to let it get overgrown again). In talking over how best to do this with the rep, we mentioned we were getting cows at some future point.

She was delighted. "Cows are one of the very best ways to control weeds!"

Of course she's right. The condition of the sacrifice pasture after the cows finished with it is proof enough.

Part of our intense rotation for the cows, therefore, is weed control. At this time of year, grass is growing fast and growing thick. We're managing the cows so they can eat things down without leaving them so long in any one place that they damage the baseline plant growth. Later in the summer, when the grass stops growing and things dry out, we'll have to be careful that the cows don't overgraze anything.

One of the places the cows had never been is the driveway area between the house and barn. This is staging area where we keep a lot of unkempt and loose stuff: Tractor implements, large items such as the log splitter and a small trailer, and miscellaneous things such as the burn barrel and scrap wood from the shop. It's where we keep rolls of fencing, unsplit log rounds, stacked and tarped lumber, unused cinder blocks, and the tarped hay bales. It's a messy and disorganized area we're not eager for visitors to see, ha ha.

But, because it's spring, many places are getting overgrown with grass between all these items. We really wanted the cows to graze it down, purely for purposes of weed control.

So we worked to cow-proof this section. We fenced off awkward angles against the hillside or in places we didn't want them to go (such as squeezing behind a shed). We picked up anything sharp that might hurt them. And finally, yesterday morning, we opened a connecting gate and called them in.

This is an especially overgrown section of hillside, and we welcomed the cows eating it down.

Of course, being cows, they did a lot of poking around. For obvious reasons, we're keeping the barn and shop doors closed while the animals are in the driveway.

Also, being cows, they're leaving a lot of cow patties. But that's okay. Cow patties aren't a fire hazard, just a walking hazard.

This open gate leads to a side chute against the barn, which in turn leads to the water tank at the back of the barn. The cows are familiar with the chute and therefore knew were to find water.

There's not enough grass in this section to keep the cows interested for more than two or three days, at which point we'll release them into the newly subdivided large pasture. Later in the summer, we'll probably put them in the driveway again, just to make sure it stays eaten down.

Organic weed control. Gotta love it.