| The broad-leaved dock is the usual type on grassland (the related curled dock being more usual on crop land and waste places). Docks that are allowed to flower and seed can produce thousands of viable seeds per plant which can disperse on the wind, by farm machinery, in manures etc. They germinate easily on disturbed open grassland, especially when the fertility is high. Silage fields that receive slurry or the latrine areas of horse paddocks are prime sites for docks to establish! |
| Broadleaved Dock is an injurious weed proscribed under the Weeds Act 1959 and must be controlled in agricultural land. Allowing the seed to disperse is an offence. |
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| Broad Leaved Dock |
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| At first, dock seedlings are delicate and vulnerable to competition from grass, or from grazing, and controllable by general broad-leaved herbicides. They quickly develop a deep tap root which ensures their survival, especially if they have a good nutrient supply. |
| After a few years the tap root can extend to over 0.5 metre across, with many branches, greatly reducing the grass and clovers for grazing or silage. Infrequent cutting or lax (or selective) grazing can greatly accelerate this: hence the problem in silage fields and horse paddocks . |
| Dock seed numbers in soil have been estimated at 5 million per acre. The seeds contain a chemical that inhibits microbial decay and are capable of surviving in undisturbed soil for over 50 years. |
| Dock plants that have been uprooted can regrow if left on the soil surface even following a period of dry weather. A dock seedling takes just 40 days from emergence to develop a rootstock that will regenerate after decapitation. |
| In the spring (before a first silage cut) when docks are leafy their digestibility value can be similar to the grass. As they mature and become stemmy this changes: they produce a high dry matter yield of low digestibility. In severe infestations their presence measurably reduces the availability of grass by similar amounts to that of the docks. Most grazing animals selectively avoid mature dock plants, letting them run to seed. Docks may also affect silage fermentation. |
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