Show Kill Sagebrush Urges Age Ag Agent Ranchers can produce more pounds ot of bc beef f or lamb per acre where they replace ex- ex extern ex ce tern stands ot of sagebrush with more palatable useful grasses through improved range Controlling lUng big sagebrush by spraying it with D 24 2 D 4 is such a practice explains County Agent Kay R Ben Ben- Bendixsen with Utah State Uni Extension Services He notes that it will soon be time to spray Last spring over 2000 acres of sagebrush were sprayed in Uintah County KARL G PARKER extension range specialist stresses the importance of proper paper timing Latter May and early June are usually con con- considered the best tIme to spray big sagebrush but he explains that simply spraying accord tag ing to the calendar has result result- resulted resulted ed in some disappointing fall fail ures Sagebrush plans must be in a state of rapid growth when sprayed with 2 D 4 in order to accomplish successful control Research conducted by Dr C Wayne Cook of the utah Agricultural meat ment Station obtaIned most consistent results where soil moisture in a sandy loam rue rue- medium textured soil was about percent in the upper one foot of soU daytime temper temper- were at least 70 de- de degrees degrees grees and temperatures at night didn't drop below 40 i degrees TilE THE EXTENSION range specialist says ranchers spraying operations will most likely be successful it if they will time them for similar conditions To determine moisture conditions he sug Bests squeezing a handful ot of soil solI It will feel moist but wont won't form into a hard ball when the moIsture is right for spraying sagebrush After spraying he advises deferring grazing until higher producing plants can spread out and get established in areas where sagebrush was killed Then to maintain vig vig- vigorous orous plants in most productive tive condition manage for moderate grazing so the ani animals mals will remove from 45 to 65 percent ot of the annual top growth Such management he emphasizes till fill produce more pounds ot of beet beef or lamb per acre than using the range rangemore rangemore more lightly or more heavily |