Management of Dodder in Lucerne for better Forage Quality

Forage crops include a wide range of annual and perennial grasses and legumes grown for hay, silage and pasture and are grown throughout the country to support various livestock. Weeds can reduce the quantity and quality of desirable plants in pastures and hayfields. Even some weed species can also be poisonous to livestock. Therefore, weed management is an imperative component of forage crops and pasture management particularly for parasitic weeds. Well-managed pastures require fewer direct actions to manage weeds because healthy, well-established forage plants are more likely to prevent weed invasions. In some situations, however, herbicides are needed for weed control despite a producer’s best pasture management efforts. Under some circumstances, the quality of pastures can be substantially improved with a well-planned herbicide programme. Therefore, parasitic weed management requires a combination of cultural, mechanical, biological, and chemical methods starting from field preparation and continues throughout the life of the pasture along with prevention strategies. The weed management techniques are often species-specific, under such circumstances the success of weed management is depends on correctly identification of weeds present in the field. In order to make sound management decisions, it is important to know the name of a weed, as well as its lifecycle and reproductive mode and capacity. Accurate information on the biology and lifecycle of the weeds can help growers to apply weed management techniques more effectively, based on the susceptibility of the species to different control methods.