Changing up my planting strategy

[River-X]

After a bunch of research I’m going to try using no till plot methods and see how things go. Along with that I am going to try to keep the fields growing with something all season. It works for others so maybe it will work for me too. Just like anything, I think there are pros and cons and we will see how it goes. I don’t expect any major revelations in the first couple years, but hopefully it will be a better balance to my habitat, land, soil, and time obligations.

I have a plan, and thats where it starts I guess. But I think there is some famous line about how quickly plans come apart or something of that nature.
I guess I’ll find out.
River

 

[jsasker007]

It gets better over time. Something growing year round is better for the fields/plots and for the wild life. Look at the LICK CREEK threads here for good ideas that should help you out.

 

[River-X]

I agree thats what I’ve read. Done a fair bit of reading on Paul’s posts of old.
Thanks,
River

 

[Wild Thing]

After a bunch of research I’m going to try using no till plot methods and see how things go. Along with that I am going to try to keep the fields growing with something all season. It works for others so maybe it will work for me too. Just like anything, I think there are pros and cons and we will see how it goes. I don’t expect any major revelations in the first couple years, but hopefully it will be a better balance to my habitat, land, soil, and time obligations.

I have a plan, and thats where it starts I guess. But I think there is some famous line about how quickly plans come apart or something of that nature.
I guess I’ll find out.
River

Good for you River-X. There is no better time to get started in no-till and cover cropping than now. Regenerative Ag is the future - I honestly believe it.

This will be my 7th year since going 100% No-Till. I wish I knew more about cover cropping when I first started but I am learning more every year. I used to plant cover crops of just rye or maybe just rye and clover. While it worked well for covering my soil and creating biomass for planting, I found that my soils have really responded since I began planting serious cover crops with 8-12 different varieties of seed and started paying attention to including all 4 categories of plants win my cover crops (Legumes, Grasses, Brassicas and Non-Legume Broadleafs). This will be my first year of using Zero Synthetic Fertilizers.

It sounds like you have done some research so you probably already know about the time savings - my tractor seat time is less than half of what it used to be when I was turning dirt. Of course, that means fuel savings as well. I already mentioned savings on fertilizer. Soil health - no comparison, erosion control...soil compaction issues...water retention....weed suppression, etc, etc, etc.

You won't regret it.

 

[SD51555]

Good for you River-X. There is no better time to get started in no-till and cover cropping than now. Regenerative Ag is the future - I honestly believe it.

This will be my 7th year since going 100% No-Till. I wish I knew more about cover cropping when I first started but I am learning more every year. I used to plant cover crops of just rye or maybe just rye and clover. While it worked well for covering my soil and creating biomass for planting, I found that my soils have really responded since I began planting serious cover crops with 8-12 different varieties of seed and started paying attention to including all 4 categories of plants win my cover crops (Legumes, Grasses, Brassicas and Non-Legume Broadleafs). This will be my first year of using Zero Synthetic Fertilizers.

It sounds like you have done some research so you probably already know about the time savings - my tractor seat time is less than half of what it used to be when I was turning dirt. Of course, that means fuel savings as well. I already mentioned savings on fertilizer. Soil health - no comparison, erosion control...soil compaction issues...water retention....weed suppression, etc, etc, etc.

You won't regret it.

Don't forget resilient. Driest conditions I'd ever seen last season, and the perennial poly plots sailed right through it.

 

[Wild Thing]

Don't forget resilient. Driest conditions I'd ever seen last season, and the perennial poly plots sailed right through it.

Absolutely SD! We had at least moderate (if not approaching Severe) drought conditions here last year as well and our food plots did pretty well in spite of the drought.

 

[SD51555]

Absolutely SD! We had at least moderate (if not approaching Severe) drought conditions here last year as well and our food plots did pretty well in spite of the drought.

I left my rye stand into the first week of August, and I'm absolutely convinced that partial shade saved my clover/alfalfa/collard/vetch stand underneath it. And that was the 2nd season crop on that ground. It didn't even have a duff layer yet.

Now it does.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

My first question to anyone starting out in no till is always, what is your soil like? I'm not talking about a sample. Is it black dirt with high organic matter, is it sandy, clay? If your soil has a fairly heavy amount of clay i'd turn it over this spring to get a good establishment of buckwheat, soybeans or annual clover, milo, and sunflowers. Maybe even throw in some kale or another long season brassica.

You will want to go heavy this fall with a winter cereal, pea, and a short lived clover. From there on out it will be good to go. Sometimes the best thing for getting into no till is to till the plot to establish a strong planting for your first year.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

So what is the plan? Whatcha planting?

 

[SD51555]

My first question to anyone starting out in no till is always, what is your soil like? I'm not talking about a sample. Is it black dirt with high organic matter, is it sandy, clay? If your soil has a fairly heavy amount of clay i'd turn it over this spring to get a good establishment of buckwheat, soybeans or annual clover, milo, and sunflowers. Maybe even throw in some kale or another long season brassica.

You will want to go heavy this fall with a winter cereal, pea, and a short lived clover. From there on out it will be good to go. Sometimes the best thing for getting into no till is to till the plot to establish a strong planting for your first year.

I prefer to start mine in the fall. It let's the weed season pass by completely and then I can lead with the mother of smother, rye, and the rest. That'll still get me some thistle the second year going into summer, but thistle brings up and immense amount of nutrients too.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I prefer to start mine in the fall. It let's the weed season pass by completely and then I can lead with the mother of smother, rye, and the rest. That'll still get me some thistle the second year going into summer, but thistle brings up and immense amount of nutrients too.

So if someone is starting out year one of no till into lets just say last years brassica planting, what would be your go to summer mix any your methods of establishment?

 

[Wild Thing]

I have always planted fall cover crops but this year I will be planting a summer cover crop as well...sort of following up on what Dr Grant Woods is doing on his Proving Grounds. This is what I will be planting soon:



I was able to get most of my seed locally but I did have to get some on-line (Merit Seed in Ohio):



UPS just delivered my Merit seed order last night...



In addition to my cover crops this includes seed for my sugar beet/brassica plots and a plot of Winfred Forage Brassica which I will be planting separately this year. I will also be drilling and broadcasting winter rye into all of these plots this fall.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I'm sure you have done your research but 40#/ acre seems light to me. You want space for your broadleaves and brassica but not so much that the weeds have room to grow. Oats are fairly short I'd consider upping the rate. The buckwheat and cow peas also seem a bit light to me but i'm guessing you used the cover seed calculator? And always consider upping the rate if broadcasting as opposed to drilling.

 

[Wild Thing]

So if someone is starting out year one of no till into lets just say last years brassica planting, what would be your go to summer mix any your methods of establishment?

I used to plant spring oats and mammoth red clover into my played out brassica plots. By spring those plots would be bare dirt. A few years ago I started including some clovers in with my brassica mix which I drill in early July here and then I broadcast winter rye into the brassicas in August. I no longer have bare dirt in the spring - I have nice clovers and young rye to feed my deer in spring as well as keeping my soil covered....producing Nitrogen and other nutrients to feed my following crop.

Here is what that looks like - this is the brassica plots on August 21st when I broadcasted rye into the brassicas. The clovers had been included in the brassica mix when I drilled it around July 8th.

August 21st - You can't even tell that there are any clovers in these plots in August, but they are getting their roots established and will flourish in the spring...



I "spot" pails of rye seed around the plots to minimize my backtracking to fill my broadcast spreader when adding the rye component...once again - this is on August 21st.



The following June 16th - the brassicas are long gone but the clovers and rye have been feeding my deer since the snow melted. The clovers and rye are also keeping my soil covered and feeding nutrients to my soil and fixing atmospheric Nitrogen into the root nodules of the legumes.



June 16th...



While the rye is beyond being palatable by this time, the clovers are being heavily browsed by lactating does and antler growing bucks.



This is my brassica recipe with the clovers included...2# each of Crimson and Medium Red Clovers per acre.

 

[jsasker007]

Thistle is like the annoying relative that shows up and ruins the gathering and is usually really hard to get rid of. You do what ever you have to so they go away---hopefully forever, but they usually come back!

 

[Wild Thing]

I'm sure you have done your research but 40#/ acre seems light to me. You want space for your broadleaves and brassica but not so much that the weeds have room to grow. Oats are fairly short I'd consider upping the rate. The buckwheat and cow peas also seem a bit light to me but i'm guessing you used the cover seed calculator? And always consider upping the rate if broadcasting as opposed to drilling.

Yes it does seem light SD but I did use the Green Cover Seed Smart Mix Calculator to estimate the rates of each seed. And remember - I also plan to drill additional seed over top of this summer mix in August. This is the same rate as Grant Woods is planting with his Summer Release (now called Browse Release with the little tweak this year). The fall cover crop will be closer to 70#/acre.

Here are what is included in the Grant Woods/Green Cover Seed mixes - 40#/acre Drilled (Summer) and 70#/acre Drilled (Fall). BTW my fall cover crops have usually been around 70-75#/acre.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

I'm going to try an acre of the albert lea SummerMax blend https://alseed.com/product/summermax-cc6/ in an area i tried (mediocre success) a spray/throw/roll lick creek rotation into a fallow hay field last fall.

This has similarities to green cover's Summer release and they recommend 40-50# acre with what appears to be fewer small seeds than the GC blend.

 

[Buckhunter10]

So much great information in this thread!

I think the most important thing to consider with these diverse mixes, is what will follow. I don't have a no-till drill and I have not fertilized in 6+ years or tilled. I have done everything with broadcasting. I recently started a company due to the demand of people asking for mixes (https://vitalizeseed.com/one-two-system).

However, the key as others have mentioned is getting multiple species balanced in your mixes
Manage your C: N ratios to optimize nutrient cycling - from one mix to the following. I see a lot of mixes that are only focused on diversity but not focused on C:N- this can create issues in the future with N tie-up.
Balancing your mixes to ensure N capture - you don't just want legumes. N goes through a cycle and having crops that are like N combined with legumes, allows us to keep N in our system!!
Reducing disturbance increases your fungal populations over time - assuming we are feeding them with adequate and diverse root exudation - and over time this will help to solubilize more nutrients for plant uptake.

I speak about N above, just as an example but note that as increase microbial diversity in plants and soil profiles a lot of other GREAT things happen. Including higher nutrient densities that have been directly correlated to higher pest resistance in plants and BRIX readings.

 

[BrushyPines]

My spring plot mix will include Milo, Buckwheat and Cowpeas. What seed rate per acre would yall go with for each?

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

And with that, getting away from chemicals will speed up plant residue breakdown allowing biology to feed what is growing.