Rangeland Ecology & Management

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Manipulating Diet Selection to Control Weeds
Author
Olson, Bret E.
Publisher
Not Available
Body

Weeds continue to spread across western North America despite millions of dollars of public and private funds spent on herbicides and biocontrol. Herbicides and biocontrol address the symptom, not the cause, of the weed “problem”. Grazing livestock on weeds has the potential to reduce the spread of weeds and control current infestations, assuming we can stimulate or increase the consumption of weeds by large and small herbivores. Stimulating or increasing consumption may be affected by inherent anatomical or morphological constraints, lack of experience with the weed, lack of an appropriate mentor, adjustment of rumen microbial populations, or potentially the use of anti-toxicants which adsorb or bind with plant allelochemicals present in many weeds. Increasing the use of weeds by domestic livestock, large and small, will begin to address one of the causes of weed infestations, an imbalance in the use of plant communities by single species grazing. (author abstract)

Language
English
Collection
  • Articles, citations, reports, websites, and multimedia resources focused on rangeland ecology, management, restoration, and other issues on American rangelands.