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Post by BuckSkin on Apr 9, 2022 4:07:13 GMT
Creeping Buttercup(Ranunculus repens) For size comparison, those are #5 Limestone Rock. The three-petaled plants over most of the bottom half of the photo are White Clover. Saturday_02-April-2022 Tree Cricket (as best I can determine) The Buttercup is quite a bit smaller than a dime. The wax-like shine is typical of the bloom when viewed up close. I had no idea of the presence of this bug until I got the photos on the computer. Saturday_02-April-2022
In the last few years, this stuff has absolutely taken over Kentucky pasture fields. If you grab the vine and pull, you will lift up and move plants a hundred feet away. All parts of the Buttercup are highly poisonous to livestock. This barn and silo scene is located on the South side of Walnut Hill, on the West side of US Hwy 127, South of Liberty in Southern Casey County. 37° 15' 34.46" North Parallel - 84° 58' 1.94" West Meridian - Elevation = 778' Faulkner Road, previously US Hwy 127, and, before that, Kentucky Route 35, passes just this side of the barn and parallels the "new" alignment of US Hwy 127, built some fifty years ago, where I am standing to take the photo. Calhoun Creek is in the treeline beyond the barn and Green River is a bit less than 3/4-mile beyond the barn. At least once per year, Green River will fill these fields and be all around the barn; and, once every ten years or so, will get up in the barn. The abundance of Buttercup in this field is typical of all fields anywhere in this region during the last several years and getting worse with each passing year. Saturday_12-May-2018
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Post by hmca on Apr 9, 2022 13:48:35 GMT
I was surprised to read this. I took a picture a few years back of a farm scene with cows in the background and masses of buttercups in the foreground.....it made for a beautiful picture. I don't know if I still have it. If I find it I will add it to this post.
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pontiac1940
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Posts: 6,357
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Post by pontiac1940 on Apr 9, 2022 15:32:51 GMT
typical of all fields anywhere in this region during the last several years and getting worse with each passing year. That's unfortunate and they are hard (impossible) to control. Invasives are a problem all over. Some of our native prairie has huge patches of non-native mustards. There is horrible annual grass in our foothills, downy brome (aka cheat grass), Bromus tectorum. Most annuals are never an issue. But downy brome produces viable seeds by May; seeds can stay viable for years; cattle can't eat it; it spreads fast over a few years; and it is allelopathic .. here. Nasty stuff.
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Post by BuckSkin on Apr 9, 2022 18:09:51 GMT
That's unfortunate and they are hard (impossible) to control. Just about anything that will kill them will also kill the grass.
I know it is not the whole problem, but a major contributor to the situation is the almost universal use of rolled hay --- the lazy man's hay solution. I have said for years that I wish they would outlaw rolled hay and all of these lazy-boy farmers will go into an outrage and start listing all manner of excuses for it's use.
Rolled hay's number one fault is that it hides a thousand sins; you just cannot tell what is in it; --- is it good quality grass; or, is it full of weeds and old rubber boots?
Farmer "A" will have a thousand cows and not enough hay for a hundred; enter Farmer "B" who cuts and rolls the "hay" from all the vacant unsellable land that is in speculators and realtors hands. Farmer "B" will cut, rake, and roll these hundreds of idle acres of untelling what that has never been limed, never fertilized, and never seen a spray-boom; rolled up nice and tight and it looks as good as any hay. Farmer "A" will buy this rolled "hay" from Farmer "B" and scatter it all over his pastures by moving the roll-bale feeders with each feeding so as to minimize the big muddy circles and the dead spots where old moldy hay has killed the ground. Whatever weeds and invasives that were growing wild on the realtors plots has now been propagated onto Farmer "A"'s pasture and his bad judgement will spread onto the neighbors who may actually be trying to do things right.
We didn't have these problems before roll hay-balers.
I often haul cattle and horses into far Western Colorado, taking US Hwy 50 all the way across. In many truck stops and convenience stores, I see "Certified Hay" for sale. I asked and was told that it is illegal to bring hay into Colorado; not even a single bale in a horse trailer; and, this "Certified Hay" is government certified to be Colorado-grown and weed free. Of course, there are plenty of old ignorant Kentucky boys who will bring in alien hay just because they were told they can't..... it's in our DNA.
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Post by BuckSkin on May 3, 2022 19:36:08 GMT
Field full of Buttercups on KY Hwy 55, on the West side of the highway, in the North corner of Tebbs Bend Road. Every field we passed was yellow with Buttercups.
Photo Taken through the glass of a Moving Vehicle
2022_Spring Festival and Plow Day Home Place on Green River Formerly Hall Brother's Farm Taylor County - Kentucky Saturday_30-April-2022
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Post by hmca on May 3, 2022 19:43:52 GMT
I like how the yellow buttercups look against that grey sky, BuckSkin.
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Post by BuckSkin on May 3, 2022 20:29:50 GMT
I like how the yellow buttercups look against that grey sky You can thank my little buddy for that one; she said "Quick! Quick! Take a Picture! Quick!"
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