Time Is Money in Brush Management

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A brush management plan is essential to maximizing the amount of forage and, ultimately, the amount of beef produced on your operation.

Whether it’s Conservation Reserve Program acres, pastures or fence lines, managing volunteer trees and encroaching brush often falls to the bottom of the to-do list. However, the price of unmanaged brush may make you start to rethink the order of that list.

A recently published study from the Journal of Applied Ecology puts the growing brush problem into perspective. The research shows that western U.S. farmers and ranchers have lost out on nearly $5 billion worth of forage due to the growth of new trees in the last three decades. This equates to 332 million tons of forage lost, or enough hay bales to circle the globe 22 times.¹

If left to grow freely, brush plants not only compete for space in your pastures but also rob important nutrients from the good-quality forage you’re trying to produce. In fact, brush uses three to five times more water than native grasses for each pound of leaf growth.²

“A brush management plan is essential to maximizing the amount of forage and, ultimately, the amount of beef produced on your operation,”
- Benny Martinez, market development specialist, Corteva Agriscience.

Got Brush? We Can Help

Although brush poses a real threat to operation profitability, the good news is it’s never too late to implement a sound brush control strategy. And last, but not least, we offer local expertise.

“We take pride in working with farmers and ranchers to identify strategies and solutions that help them reach their production goals,” Martinez says. Contact your local Corteva Agriscience representative to learn more about brush management strategies that may be a fit for your operation.

Corteva Agriscience offers several solutions to help improve forage production and reclaim acres of land lost to brush, including:

Remedy^® and Remedy^® Ultra herbicides provide convenient, flexible, long-lasting control of more than 35 brush species. Whether protecting grazing acres from encroaching brush, maintaining valuable fence lines or reclaiming overgrown pastureland, Remedy and Remedy Ultra get the job done.
Tordon^® 22K provides all-purpose noxious weed control as well as basic invasive weed management. It also provides the best leafy spurge control available and is an excellent choice for field bindweed control.
Spike^® 20P herbicide provides premium, long-term control of the toughest brush species — including big sage, shinnery and other oaks, tarbush and creosote bush — while enhancing the grazing and wildlife habitat. Improved grass production means more cattle can graze on the same amount of land, so beef production also thrives.
Sendero^® herbicide is the standard in mesquite control.™ It offers greater than 15% better control and more consistency than the old standard. Controlling mesquite with Sendero results in increased grass production and improved wildlife habitat.
LandVisor^® Advanced Brush Management combines sophisticated imagery, data, technology and expert guidance to produce actionable insights unique to your operation. The decision-support tool provides detailed information on forage productivity and vegetation, including the density of desirable and undesirable plant species. This information can help you identify where brush management practices will provide the most value.

¹ Morford, S. L., et al. 2022. Herbaceous production lost to tree encroachment in United States rangelands. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.14288

² Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. 2022. Illinois Grazing Manual Fact Sheet. https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2022-08/Brush-Management_0.pdf

Tordon 22K is a Restricted Use Pesticide. ™ ® LandVisor, Remedy, Sendero and “The standard in mesquite control.” are trademarks of Corteva Agriscience and its affiliated companies. Spike® is a registered trademark of Nutrichem used under license. Sendero® is not registered for sale or use in all states. Contact your state pesticide regulatory agency to determine if a product is registered for sale or use in your state. State restrictions on the sale and use of Remedy® and Remedy Ultra apply. Consult the label before purchase or use for full details. Always read and follow label directions.