One of our biggest issues is rebalancing with the foxtails here. We have seen a steady encroachment of foxtails into some of our pastures.
Foxtail (Hordeum jubatum) is a “native” perennial grass species that is a hybrid of a now-extinct California native and an Asian grass. It is aggressive and successful in taking over areas with a wide range of conditions. Once you’ve got it, the conventional wisdom says, you can only get rid of it with pesticides, tilling, or, in most cases, a combination of these methods.
Kill Them
Certainly, we were told by mentors in the Fibershed Producer Program, you could till (cut up the land). And, you’ll lose the carbon bank that you have been working so hard to build. Till annually, and you will maybe, eventually (5 years), get rid of the foxtails. But you’ll probably bring on other diseases/imbalances in the process.
Then there is smothering. The choices there are to solarize (put down plastic) or sheet mulch. The small experimental area (about 8′ x 8′) that we solarized in 2017 in the Winter Palace, where we groomed Pearl, is now completely sterile, dead. All life got the heck baked out of it under that plastic for a year. So yes, maybe solarizing will destroy the foxtail seed bank, but, will also destroy everything else living in the soil. So, in the end, you don’t have soil, you have dirt. Hmm. Not so good. Sheet mulch—great, except that for the size of the area we are talking about here, a bit under an acre, it is not practical. We would need to build about a 12″ deep sheet mulch using cardboard on the bottom, then green and brown material, for it to end up with a 3 – 4″ depth; that is how deep a foxtail seed can be, and still germinate. Hmmm. Too. Much. Stuff. To. Get. Here. And. Lay. Down.
So, since none of these solutions is particularly inspiring, we chose to believe there is a good solution, but we have not yet found it. And maybe we need to slow down and reflect.
What if the foxtails being so dominant here is a signal of imbalance in the soil and in the ecosystem? The land was historically overgrazed and compacted. What if we consider this situation from the standpoint of gratitude that Nature is supporting life, in the form of foxtails?
Dr. Christine Jones
Enter the Fibershed-sponsored workshop on June 18, 2019, Fundamentals of Soil with Dr. Christine Jones. Here, we found answers that actually make sense. While sitting in the workshop the light bulb went on: just like Toby and Larry always said:
The problem is the solution.
Here are some of our takeaways from Christine’s presentation, for application on our farm:
- Build biodiversity above and below ground.
- Give the species we want to establish a competitive edge against the foxtails by treating desirable forb and grass seeds with an innoculant called “SPICE compost extract.”
- The compost extract is described by the venerable Gerry Gillespie in his YouTube videos.
- Check out the base and the extended methods.
- This starts as a ferment!!! Just like in the kitchen with kraut, kombucha, sourdough starter . . . Natural, home territory for us!!! Yay!!!!
- “Think green meadows.” Research what we can innoculate and seed in the pasture to help with water retention longer in the hot, dry summer.
Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch
We have:
- Mowed the foxtail, raked up the seed heads, and taken them offsite
- Pulled out foxtail plants by the roots and disposed of them offsite—about 8000 pounds, from less than an acre, in 2019
- Mowed the foxtail seed heads and covered them thickly with wood chips to protect the dogs and grazing animals from foxtail seedhead injuries
- Broadcast new, factory-innoculated dryland pasture seed mix in October 2019, then spread the Healthy Soils Compost layer on top of that just before the rain.
Results? In 2020 spring, after a fairly dry winter, the foxtails came back in force. Whatever we hauled out of here, there is still a deep, deep bench in the seed bank, waiting to spring up. So our 2020 strategy is to let the sheep graze the grass while it stays green. When the grass turns brown and before the seed heads fall, we will mow again and cover with woodchips to protect the animals. We will keep working on rebalancing and observing what happens.