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Goats, buckthorn and soybean aphids

The Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council is studying the effectiveness of grazing livestock to control plants that harbor aphids.

Director of public affairs Joe Smentek says buckthorn is a problem for soybean growers because aphids overwinter and repopulate on shrubs near fields.

“Soybean aphids will live on the buckthorn (and) go through a couple generations on it before moving out onto soybean fields as soybean plants emerge.  Then later in the fall, (the aphids) move back onto the buckthorn, lay their eggs and start the whole cycle over.”

He tells Brownfield a recent field day demonstrated the use of goats to control buckthorn.

“It can be done with a few other animals (too).  Long-horn cattle and hogs are also pretty good at uprooting and hurting the competitive advantage that the buckthorn has by eating the leaves when they leaf out earlier than other plants.  Or eating the leaves when all the other plants have lost their leaves.”

Smentek says controlling buckthorn with goats or other animals can be one part of an overall strategy to limit soybean aphid populations.