You¹ve asked about controlling cranesbill and plantains in pasture. By cranesbill I think you¹re referring to Erodium cicutarium which is actually called storksbill but it's probably called cranesbill in some local regions.  Looks as much like a crane as it does a stork, as far as I can see.  Just check the attached weed file to be sure I am on the right track.

I¹ve attached the weed files for the two common plantains, as well as storksbill.  You¹ll see that there are several product options that are common to all.

Our product 2,4-D 720 Amine is a good choice, and will not be damaging to grass nor to clover.  But it works best against smaller weeds.   But repeat applications can still get on top of infestations that are past the seedling or small rosette stage.

Really big ones will however need probably GrassMate, which is grass friendly but damages clover.  You can minimise clover damage by grazing it back hard a few days before spraying, but there¹ll still be  quite a bit of lost clover, and it often won¹t fully recover for many weeks.

Customer replied: 

Hi Paul. Thanks for your reply.  I have a bit of a problem with 'cut-leaved cranesbill' -Geranium dissectum and it's cousin 'dove's foot cranesbill' -Geranium molle  -much more 'furtively creeping' than storksbill.   It seems to be easily knocked over but comes back annoyingly quickly -maybe through seed regrowth.

 

Aha!  Well if we¹re dealing with cut-leaved geranium and dove¹s foot then the 2,4-D Granules recommendation for clover-friendly treatment still stands. 2,4-D should control cut-leaved geranium at all stages of growth, and dove¹s foot at least at the seedling stage.

These related species are, as you noted, tricky species to control.  Not sure that my earlier suggestion of GrassMate as a big gun would still be appropriate now that I realise we are not dealing with storksbill! But one specialist herbicide that would definitely be effective, and I think against all stages of growth of these two weeds, would be dicamba.

We don¹t have a dicamba, but there are several brands available.  But dicamba does knock clover back just like GrassMate, and it¹ll be at least 2 months before it is recovering reasonably.