Le rumex à feuilles obtuses dans les systèmes herbagers : importance de la problématique, lutte chimique et méthodes alternatives

Broad-leaved dock in grassland farming systems : importance of the problems raised, chemical control and control by alternative methods

Among the problems raised by the maintenance of pastures, that of the control of dock plants is recurrent, by reason of the considerable vigour and adaptative power of these plants and of controlling their encroachment in swards of complex botanical composition. A survey of farmers in southern Belgium, bearing on their management practices and their methods of pasture maintenance, showed the importance of the pressure exerted by the broad-leaved dock, Rumex obtusifolius, which was considered a problem by 40% of them; there was a correlation between supplementation and the spreading of cattle slurry and manure on the one hand, and the importance to the farmers of the dock problem on the other. A complete review is made of the chemical treatments applied, according to the nature of the sward and the age of the pasture. Various alternative methods of control are also described (mock seeding, kind of tillering, grazing management…), together with their efficiency against the seedlings and regrowths of dock plants.