Why....

[farmaholic]

This looks like what Velocity does to thistles. They are in a pasture.

No herbicide apps there.....

[Guest]

they get a fungal disease , see it lots here.youre gonna have to spray a fungicide on them, lol

[farmaholic]

"THEY" wish!.....the thistles AND the Chem Cos.

[grassfarmer]

Its PST and not the Provincial Sales Tax.

[farmaholic]

http://ipcm.wisc.edu/blog/2014/07/white-tippedbleached-canada-thistle-a-good-thing/


Thanks grassfarmer.

[farmaholic]

Hobby, the organic crowd might find this bacteria useful if our regular crops aren't suseptible. Though they did talk about plants in the "sunflower" family being susceptible.

[hobbyfrmr]

The organic and pesticide free crowd is very keen on this. Ag Canada was doing research on this fungus (I think it's a fungus) but I think they ran short of money. If memory serves me, Scott, the grass seed/turf company has been putting the money into it. They have a lot to gain from golf courses and city type properties. This may be totally inaccurate I am just going by memory.

[grefer]

Google Karen Bailey Agriculture and Agri Food Canada. She and others have been researching this for years. Started in mid nineties I think.

[Ache4Acres]

its a bacteria not fungus. Interesting indeed.

[hobbyfrmr]

Yes, that's it grefer, thank you.

[monte]

Interesting weed control idea if it works.

[grassfarmer]

Never found thistles to be much of a problem in a properly managed perennial pasture situation.
Smart cattle recognize thistles for what they are - another valuable with a feed value roughly the same as alfalfa. Yearling bulls moved off this pasture this morning.

[nicolaas]

wow, my cows are stupid!!

[grassfarmer]

wow, my cows are stupid!!

There are a lot of stupid ones around apparently. Kathy Voth has run a remedial school for them since 2004.

[URL="http://www.livestockforlandscapes.com/cowmanagers.htm"]http://http://www.livestockforlandscapes.com/cowmanagers.htm[/URL]

Mine were all self taught but they have a genetic advantage.

[freewheat]

The sheep love thistles and stinging nettles too.