Rangeland management requires flexibility — in application timing and treatment methods — to achieve specific goals.
Creating and maintaining a healthy land resource drives most management decisions. This rings especially true across the Western rangeland, where managing for multiple land-use goals gets special attention.
Whether the incentive is increased forage production for cattle, enhanced habitat for wildlife, or simply restoring or preserving native sites, the goal is a land base that supports varied objectives.
“Maintaining a high level of rangeland health benefits livestock producers who depend on the forage source,” explains Brian Mealor, Ph.D., University of Wyoming Extension weed specialist and director of the Sheridan Research and Extension Center. “It also benefits wildlife and recreational and other uses on public and privately owned lands.”
But what happens when invasive or other low-value undesirable species threaten those objectives?
Consider, for example, the recent rise of winter annual grasses across many Western states. Whether it’s ventenata, medusahead or cheatgrass (downy brome), dealing with these species has grown in importance among rangeland managers.
These grasses offer minimal forage value to livestock or wildlife, crowd out perennial forage grasses, and create monocultures ill-suited for grazing or habitat. Treatment programs can be effective, but most leave bareground — a hole, if you will — that needs filling. And that leaves nature to do its job.
“When you take one plant out of an ecosystem, something is going to replace it,” says Will Hatler, an Idaho-based Range & Pasture field scientist with Corteva Agriscience. “Without a remnant population of desirable grasses poised to move in, the void most commonly gets filled with broadleaf weeds — often invasive.”
That’s where a diverse toolbox can help. New DuraCor™ herbicide brings a broadleaf weed control component to annual grass programs. DuraCor provides tank-mix flexibility with most annual grass control products. Now, in a single pass, you can take out those grasses and gain the extended control to stop broadleaf weeds’ intent on backfilling that space.
“DuraCor plays an important role in integrated programs designed to reclaim rangeland lost to these winter annual species,” Hatler says. “Often, these programs incorporate reseeding with competitive perennial forage grasses.” Including DuraCor helps keep broadleaf weeds at bay until the newly seeded grasses take off.
Whether your land management challenge calls for a broad-spectrum or more selective option, extended or short-term activity, or flexible application methods, the full Range & Pasture portfolio from Corteva is designed to provide the prescriptive solution your land-use goals require.
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Label precautions apply to forage treated with DuraCor and to manure and urine from animals that have consumed treated forage. Consult the label for full details.
™ Trademark of Dow AgroSciences, DuPont or Pioneer, and their affiliated companies or their respective owners. DuraCor 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. Always read and follow label directions.
