Treatment Strategies

Physical Strategies

Physical strategies to help fight noxious weeds include:

Grazing - repeated removal of top growth prevents seed formation and gradually weakens underground parts, if grazing is properly managed
Hand Weeding - destroys annual, biennial, and non-creeping perennials
Mowing - cutting as close to the ground as possible can destroy weeds in areas where cultivation or hand weeding are impractical or impossible
Tillage - enables the farmer to attack many weed survival mechanisms, preventing seed production in annual plants and destroying the underground parts of perennial plants

Cultural strategies to help fight noxious weeds include:

Crop Rotations - certain groups of weeds are associated with specific crop rotations and changing the crops can reduce or eliminate repeat, persistent weeds associated with those specific crops
Plant Competition - one of the cheapest and most useful general weed control available to all farmers. "Survival of the fittest."
Crop Establishment - generally the first plants to germinate and emerge in an area tend to exclude all others, so work toward a vigorous dense crop

Biological strategies to help fight noxious weeds include:

Use of natural agents such as insects, nematodes, fungi, viruses or fish for the control of weeds
In some instances, grazing animals can be used to harvest and stress noxious weeds

Chemical strategies to help fight noxious weeds:

The success of 2,4-D when introduced commercially in 1946 launched the present era of herbicides. It is important to understand the basics of herbicides to determine the most effective treatment
Read and understand all chemical labels when using

To help fight noxious weeds you can:

Be aware of your surroundings and report any possible locations of noxious weeds
Check your property regularly for noxious weeds
Contact Blaine County Noxious Weed Department for identification and treatment consultation