I'm beginning to think this area is the Weed Capital of the West.
Tillage equipment worth a fortune and the miracle of sprays we may or may not be using to create more problems, don't seem to make much difference. And with some individuals and most organizations, there seems to be indifference.
In some parts of the Untied States, leafy spurge and knapweed have reduced the ability of thousands of acres of pasture to carry livestock by 75 per cent (U.S. Department of Agriculture Research Service 2011).
Locally, in the 1980s, farmers and a weed inspector eradicated toadflax. Around that time I saw a patch of it blooming in a rural municipality south of ours. I told the councillor for that division. He shrugged and said they didn't bother with that sort of thing. Obviously. In a rural municipality to the west I have seen pastures yellow with toadflax.
In 2005, the CNR had toadflax to a width of four feet along their track through a certain town. It took some effort to get them to do anything and I've been wondering ever since why no one else had noticed and reported it. A bit more "ho hum," another shrug, I guess.
Then in 2009, I began to see little patches here, there and everywhere and would report them. Was anything done? These patches were all well south of where I live.
In the 1990s, for three years, there was no mowing done past this farm. Oh, it was really pretty when the thistles were in bloom. Soon however, they had been carried by wind and along water courses and were blooming in the crop, in the pastures, in the garden and in the lawns. On enquiring, I was told the councillor for my division had taken me off the mowing list. Mowing list? What mowing list? I thought all road allowances were mowed. So, there was sweet clover at one crossroads eight feet tall. Drivers couldn't see oncoming traffic even from a truck. I took some into the RM office and also photographed it.
I expect the reason for mowing roadsides is not to keep down weeds but to prevent snow banks along the road. Consequently, weeds have gone to seed and infested the fields.
We're now being infested by foxtail. I tried hand pulling it when it came along a water course that was carrying it from the not mowed road. Then I took the ride-on mower the next year to cut it when it was still green. The area had multiplied. Oh, it had multiplied! Now I see it all over the field, of course.
A landowner bought grass seed from a certain big shot company. The next year the seeded area showed great germination, but not from grass. Oh, no, it was a field solid with foxtail. Foxtail can be deadly to cattle. The company said they could only guarantee their seed to 97 per cent.
Over the years, I've seeded several small pastures and not once did I get a field of weeds along with the grass seed.
In the 1980s, a landowner bought registered canola seed. Included in the canola seed was a bonus; enough chickweed to cover the quarter section.
More recently, pea seed was planted on this home quarter and the seed was full of cleavers.
The oil business equipment has brought in weeds. One can find them along oil roads.
It seems most equipment that comes into this yard brings something, plus, quite some years ago, round leaf mallow came with livestock feed. This is a bad weed, capable of growing roots a foot long in one summer and it carries a load of seeds up the stem.
The worst weed ever to come on to this particular farm came with oats I bought in 1975 to feed chickens. Oh, these had a bonus! A small, remote henhouse was empty in the spring, then cleaned out and the manure left to turn into compost. It was some time before I went that way and when I did I saw, growing from the pile, tall, green, many branched plants with pretty little blue flowers much like a blue bur or forget-me-not, but there the resemblance ended. I piled it thinking it would rot. Oh, for a little foresight. This green devil is capable of ripening, even when pulled up, from a fresh little blue flower to a green bur that dries to brown. The next month the dog came trotting along covered with green burs. She was a large dog, who had scattered seeds en route.
The Department of Agriculture, thus far, seems unable to identify this weed. It likes to grow in the shade and is spread by wild and domestic animals and will stick to human skin. I have now spent close to 40 years hand pulling that weed. I don't appreciate the fact that the fellow sold me the weed, but he possibly bought it from someone else. The difference is that I've tried to eradicate it. Try is the word.
Then there are the weeds that have slipped away from homesteaders' building sites. One of these is common tansy, which is decorating highway ditches.
A stretch of Highway 303 east of Lloydminster has a lovely stretch of toadlfax as does Highway 16 east of Maidstone. I understand the highways department doesn't seem to think it their duty to destroy these. Instead they allow cattle owners to mow the ditches and carry the bales home, so they, too, can enjoy the pretty sight of toadflax in bloom.
A few years ago, I hired a good worker to spray small areas with a quad mounted sprayer. I planned to get her the next year, but she decided to retire from that job. She suggested someone else, who never showed up. Then I was told of a person with the same equipment who was looking for work. Not looking very hard, as I phoned him two years in a row. He said he'd, "get back" to me. Oh, the boom area mentality. He never got back to me, no doubt thinking "plenty more where that came from." I shan't be getting back to him.
Pastures carry many weeds and the saddest sight is native grass grazed to nothing except buck or badger bush.
I can try to fight all these weeds, meanwhile sneering at weed books where the compliers name beautiful native flowers (now extinct in much of the West) as weeds. As far as I'm concerned, anything European is a genuine weed, fast moving and nasty.
And the weeds I fight? Thrity-two kinds have been introduced onto the home quarter by mankind, by birds and animals. I don't blame the birds and animals. They just carry what mankind provided for them to carry.
Meanwhile, to the south there's a large tract of Crown land liberally covered with leafy spurge. And I don't have it!
It's only and matter of time. Somebody or something will likely bring it.
All joking aside, I consider this to be a serious problem that should be seriously tackled by everyone.
Meanwhile, would you care to hear about the slug problem so kindly given to me by a plant nursery where they ignored the problem?
"Ignored the problem." That's the problem.
