Cows Versus Cogon Grass

They don't need gas and they don't need their blades sharpened. They're the greenest weapon against the scourge of cogon grass.

“They can stay on it all the time until they defoliate it and kill it they're there 24 and 7,” says James “Smokey” Davis.

He’s a member of the Alabama Treasure Forest Association. Smokey Davis says he first got the idea a few years ago. He heard about using goats to control kudzu.

“I thought well if a goat can control kudzu, then these cattle could control cogon grass,” says Smokey.

He says he’s been using “bovine intervention” on cogon grass for the last two and a half seasons. He says the cows eat the grass so the roots can't survive.

“Cogon grass does not do well under the pressure of defoliation and once they defoliate it several times,” says Smokey. “It actually kills the cogon grass.”

Last year, we showed you a program that was helping mobile county landowners spray cogon grass away. Smokey says he saves money on chemicals and hundreds of dollars in fuel by using cattle.