The Battle of the Burrs

Love the commentary! And I am VERY glad we don't have many burrs around here! I also enjoyed the "nice pic of your helper"

You folks need some goats to run with your horses. Clean your pasture up with goat power!

Haha great thread, had a good laugh! :)
Must have been frustrating. So lucky Mussy doesnt get burs lol

Apart from the fact that husband wont let me have goats, and believe me I tried......is it just a rumor that the will chew horse tails off?

I don't think that they will, I have had goats and horses together for a long time. I have 3 horses and had 11 goats, sold 6 now I have 5, and all my horses tail drag on the ground. I have had well over 50 goats and none of then did any thing to my horses' manes and tails.


You should get some goats! You will love them!

Wow, makes me glad that we don't have burrs. Well, we do, but they are few and far between. Most times when horse ends up with burrs, it's 2-3 at the most.

I honestly don't know how to handle them, would a controlled burn kill some of them off? I know it would kill the grass too, but around here, lots of ranchers will do at least 1 controlled burn in late fall (after the grass is dead, in your case, it would also be before the ground is covered in snow) to kill off the chenery(sp??) and sage brush before next spring. I'm wondering if that would be effective on burrs too.

It's a rumor.
They never chewed our horses tails off and for a few years we had more goats than horses.
It's also a rumor that they'll clean your pasture of burs, but we did try it. They're actually picky eaters.
Goats are great for clearing up most overgrowth along fences or overgorwn wooded areas, because they'll eat a variety of bushes and will keep Sweetgum trees from growing (they love the leaves and will strip the bark if the tree's not too old). However goats never put a dent in the sand spur or cucklebur plants (cucklebur is toxic anyway, so you don't want your animals eating it and certainly want it out of your pasture). You can keep it cut regularly and that helps kill it off over time (if you can keep it from coming back).

The best thing to do in the long run is to get weed killer and spray them. 2-4-D kills them, doesn't harm the grass, and you can use it with no waiting on pastures. Look for something like Pasture-Pro from TSC.

I work on outfits many times larger than 1400 acres and go out and chop the weeds down before they flower where there are small patches. Have also used herbicide and insect predators on the larger areas of growth, in addition to chopping. I'm certain your area department/ministry of ag would have great ideas and maybe even funding for the supplies to fight noxious weeds. A friend in Alberta has accessed that resource on her family's place. (We've compared successes)

While I sympathize with your having to pull out the burrs, I really recommend removing the plants.

The initial post is nearly a year old, and we are slowly getting control of the burr problem. I did get overwhelmed with them and by them, so rather than attacking the whole thing I have been slowly clearing areas.

A combination of cut and burn, and some spraying is turning the tide slowly. I now have the yard and the closest turn out areas nearly sorted, but still have a battle ahead, hopefully by this time next year we will be burr free!