Goatweed, as it is commonly known in my area, is also known as hogwort, dovewood or woolly croton. It’s scientific name is Croton capitatus. You can find lots of resources about where it lives and how it thrives.
In short, goatweed starts growing in June, and will cover your field in July, August and September. When the weather cools down, the goatweed starts to die off. By mid-winter, it is just stalks in the air, and in the spring, the stalks are dry and shatter when you step on them.
When I first came to my area of Northeast Texas, I noticed that this weed was practically everywhere. I was told two things about it that just aren’t true. One, that cows won’t eat it (nor sheep or goats), and two, that it destroys your pastures and you have to spray and shred to kill it or you won’t have any grass.
On the first subject, cows do eat it. I have seen cows run into fresh pasture and head straight for the goatweed. That said, they don’t eat enough to make a difference, but it is edible and I guess even desirable. I do notice that the longhorns eat more of it than the angus and angus crosses do, so it may have something to do with the breed of the cow.
On the second count I don’t believe goatweed is even a nuisance. In fact, I think it saved my field from the effects of the drought in 2023. Let me explain what happened, and then I will tell you why I think it happened.
In late June, I noticed the goatweed seedlings everywhere in my pasture. By July, it was poking up over the grass, and by August, it had formed a thick canopy. If you were to survey my field you might imagine it was goatweed and nothing else. However, when you actually walked in to the goatweed, you could see plenty of grass growing underneath it. In fact, in some places the grass was taller than the goatweed.
All in all, my sentiment last year at the end of August was that even though I had plenty of goatweed, I had more grass than my neighbors, so I thought I did pretty good. If it were possible to eliminate all the goatweed in an instant it would be abundantly clear that this was true.
There were some places with no goatweed at all. Those were the places where the grass was crazy thick and dense. There were also places with hardly anything growing at all. Even the goatweed had a hard time.
Now, as to why I think my field did well with the goatweed.
When it comes to water, there is only one way water can get into my pasture: rainfall. The water falls to the earth, and either it hits bare ground or it is intercepted by a plant. If it hits bare soil, it sends dust into the air. If it hits a plant, its descent is slowed and likely it will be directed to the roots of the plant. The roots will conduct the water deep into the soil.
For the water on the surface of the soil, the water may pool up and drain away, or it may be absorbed completely, or some combination of the above two. Gabe Brown has a wonderful experiment where he demonstrates that living soil that hasn’t been tilled or overgrazed will readily allow water to pass through it underground. The rainwater doesn’t pool on the surface and it doesn’t run off either. Fields that are healthy in this way absorb the rainwater like a sponge. This is exactly what we want, especially when we are in a drought or teetering on the brink of drought.
Obviously, too much water can be bad, but that wasn’t the issue last year (or in 2022 or 2021 — we had three years of bad droughts back-to-back.)
So, would I rather have bare ground or goatweed when it comes to rain? Obviously, goatweed. Bare ground is the worst option. In fact, any vegetation of any kind is much better than bare ground. The more vegetation the better.
Now, once the water is in the soil, it can be stored there for some time but eventually it will leave through one of two different ways. It can evaporate into the air, or it can transpirate through plants. If it transpirates through the plants, then the plants are growing and thriving. Evaporation just makes the humidity a little higher and doesn’t provide any forage or benefit to my pasture (unless there is too much water in the soil — again, that was not the problem last year.)
Goatweed helps limit or reduce the evaporation of water from the soil. It does this by providing shade and even creating a sort of air-conditioning effect. The air under the goatweed is going to be several degrees cooler than the air above the goatweed, just like the air in a thicket of trees is cooler than the air over bare ground in summer. This helped maintain and preserve the water in the soil so that plants can use it. Of course, goatweed itself is going to use some of that water, and when water is scarce, you might think it would be better not to have goatweed but I disagree. I think the goatweed saves more water than it uses, and is a net benefit in that department. Indeed, I saw with my own eyes that the areas under the goatweed had plenty of moisture in the soil, even on the surface of the soil, than the areas without.
Beyond water, there are other vital processes. These processes include building the mycorrhizal fungi in the soil, encouraging the right kinds of bacteria and insects to free up valuable nutrients from the soil for the plants, and building up the carbon levels in the soil. All of these processes are helped, not hurt, by goatweed. I would rather have goatweed than nothing, just for the benefits to the soil.
Indeed, we know for a fact that certain kinds of plants benefit from being in close proximity to each other. I believe that goatweed helps the grass grow stronger and better, even though it competes with the grass for the valuable sunlight and water resources. I say this because the last thing weak grass needs in the heat of the summer is to be exposed to direct sunlight. Grasses need to establish deep roots before it can tolerate this sort of thing. The goatweed gives the grass time to put down deep roots, preparing it for next year, when there may not be as much goatweed in the pasture.
Going forward, my recommendations for handling goatweed go something like this:
- Do NOT leave the ground bare, especially in June and July. Make sure that every square inch of your pasture is covered with grass that is at least 4″ (10 cm) deep.
- If you do get goatweed, do not shred or spray to kill it, even if it covers your pasture. Let it grow. Be careful not to overgraze whatever grass you have underneath the goatweed. In fact, consider taking animals off of the area until the goatweed starts to die.
- In order to make #1 and #2 work, consider your stocking density. It is likely that you have too many animals for your acreage, and you need to reduce their numbers.