Archives: December 2010

Last August I did a presentation in Strathmore, Alberta, Canada.  I was followed by a rancher who talked about the Coaching Program we used to train his cows to eat Canada thistle and we went out to see how they were doing.  The rancher was quite pleased with the results.

Jared Sundquist attended that presentation.  He recently wrote to ask,

“I was wondering how beneficial this technique of weed control is?  If you could please reply at your earliest convenience, I would really appreciate that.”

OK, here’s what I was thinking when I started trying to figure out how to teach cows to eat weeds:

1.  Using herbicides is expensive.  Not only is there the cost of the chemical itself, but there’s the cost of the equipment to apply it, along with labor for learning about how to use it, sometimes getting certified to use it, then applying it.  And it’s not a one time cost, but something that is repeated over and over again.

2.  Herbicides don’t appear to be working.  In spite of our best efforts, weed populations continue to expand at about 14% per year.  So it seems like we’re pouring good money after bad.

3.  Producers are often low on forage, particularly in arid areas or during drought.  But weeds are always there, even in drought, AND they’re often higher in nutritional value than traditional grass-based forage.

4.  Margins are pretty low in agriculture and the producers who can reduce costs are the ones who are going to be successful.

5.  SO – If I can figure out how to get a cow to eat a weed, producers can eliminate the expense for weed control, they’ll have more feed at no additional cost, cows gain weight more rapidly when they eat higher protein foods, so farmers will be able to raise more, fatter cows more cheaply and they’ll make more money doing it.

One of the ranchers I worked with this summer in the Burns, Oregon area told me that his father-in-law had paid almost $400 for a gallon of herbicide to spray on Canada thistle.  Nate Allington and I trained his cows to eat Scotch thistle, and then when they went to pasture, they added Canada and bull thistle to their diet. He said they ate them both into the ground.  So now he has cows that will do this every year, he never has to buy the herbicide, and he’s benefiting from the extra forage his cows have.  It seems pretty beneficial to me, but maybe we should look a little more closely. (more…)