Giant Ragweed not generally thought of as a forage item. However, after my horses decimated a plot of it last spring, I did some research on it. Turns out it is a really good forage item and the rabbits love it.
This was taken from this pdf on deer forages in southern oklahoma. There are other possible forage items listed as well. It makes for an interesting read. https://www.noble.org/global/ag/wildlif ... ersion.pdf
As you can see CP is quite high all year from over 30% to just under 20%. Depending on the time of year. TDN is also quite good. With 70% being the lowest. Compair to Alfalfa with hay with CP of about 18% and TDN of around 60%.
Last fall I decided to plant some giant ragweed closer to the house. I started gathering seeds but it quickly turned quite tedious as not all seeds are ready at the same time on the same plant. So, I got lazy and just chopped a bunch of the plants down (they were along road) and laid them out in where I wanted them to grow.
I wasn't sure if it would work or not. I did not prepare the soil at all. The soil in this area is also not very good. It is mostly clay with a bit of sand on top. I can definitely see a difference between this area and what is growing along the edge of the garden that has been amended with rabbit manure. Those plants are much much taller. Ragweed has deep roots, so I'm hoping it will break up the clay a bit as well. I inter-planted some lablab (forage hyacinth bean) the other day which is a nitrogen fixer and it's starting to sprout. I'm hoping all together it makes a very interesting food plot.
Here is a shot of the plot.
And here is a close up of a bunch of ragweed seedlings starting to come up. In the areas that have better soil /lower soil acidity. The plants are about 2 ft tall.
Something interesting I have discovered about ragweed, is if you cut the plant back to the bottom branches, it causes the plant to really bush out and create more branches. I'm interested to see how often you can cut back a plant and still have it grow.
This was taken from this pdf on deer forages in southern oklahoma. There are other possible forage items listed as well. It makes for an interesting read. https://www.noble.org/global/ag/wildlif ... ersion.pdf
As you can see CP is quite high all year from over 30% to just under 20%. Depending on the time of year. TDN is also quite good. With 70% being the lowest. Compair to Alfalfa with hay with CP of about 18% and TDN of around 60%.
Last fall I decided to plant some giant ragweed closer to the house. I started gathering seeds but it quickly turned quite tedious as not all seeds are ready at the same time on the same plant. So, I got lazy and just chopped a bunch of the plants down (they were along road) and laid them out in where I wanted them to grow.
I wasn't sure if it would work or not. I did not prepare the soil at all. The soil in this area is also not very good. It is mostly clay with a bit of sand on top. I can definitely see a difference between this area and what is growing along the edge of the garden that has been amended with rabbit manure. Those plants are much much taller. Ragweed has deep roots, so I'm hoping it will break up the clay a bit as well. I inter-planted some lablab (forage hyacinth bean) the other day which is a nitrogen fixer and it's starting to sprout. I'm hoping all together it makes a very interesting food plot.
Here is a shot of the plot.
And here is a close up of a bunch of ragweed seedlings starting to come up. In the areas that have better soil /lower soil acidity. The plants are about 2 ft tall.
Something interesting I have discovered about ragweed, is if you cut the plant back to the bottom branches, it causes the plant to really bush out and create more branches. I'm interested to see how often you can cut back a plant and still have it grow.