First try at no-till soybean mix and brassicas into rye

[YoungGuns]

Nice looking plot! only one pic came through on my end not sure if it my computer or what

Ill try to fix that. My end it shows up. Pictures may be too large.

 

[scott44]

Ill try to fix that. My end it shows up. Pictures may be too large.

They showed up now, looks good. Maybe your beans are just getting browsed?

 

[YoungGuns]

Looks very good to me! Why would you not be happy?

Looks like I have a lot of weeds mixed in. I wish the corn was a little taller too. Hopefully I'll get a lot of seed on.

 

[scott44]

Everthing seems to be growing good including the fall panicum, I have it all over back there.

Pic of the plots looking the other way from previous pics, no-till on right and till on left.


No-till exclusion cage


Till exclusion cage


I don't remember throwing any crimson clover or hairy vetch in the mix but I must have, kinda cool looking together.


Still pretty heavy usage, day.


And night

 

[dipper]

Innovation is pretty sweet isn't it Scott. I know young gun is trying to get into the food plot biz in central wi, with all that expensive equipment and all. Your results are another prime example what little is needed to get picture perfect results, with minimal equipment, time and money. I have a hard time differentiating between right and left anymore. Don't be afraid of adding some cool season seed in that warm season plot. You'll keep those deer around all winter for a few extra bucks and a half hour.
That mature rye you got going there looks like it is ready to go. What's the plan with that?

 

[scott44]

Innovation is pretty sweet isn't it Scott. I know young gun is trying to get into the food plot biz in central wi, with all that expensive equipment and all. Your results are another prime example what little is needed to get picture perfect results, with minimal equipment, time and money. I have a hard time differentiating between right and left anymore. Don't be afraid of adding some cool season seed in that warm season plot. You'll keep those deer around all winter for a few extra bucks and a half hour.
That mature rye you got going there looks like it is ready to go. What's the plan with that?

Yea it's coming along alot better than I thought it would, as far as the rye I'm up for suggestions, I've never let my rye go this long before. There is a pretty good catch of red clover under that rye. I was thinking of maybe just clipping it and getting my free seed. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[dipper]

You can just leave it or-Three options: flatten, lightly disc or chop it up. All 3 will get you free seed. Discing will give you the quickest germination. Flatten and mowing will need more moisture to germinate. Some of which won't happen to late in the fall. Obviously more tender, but less biomass.
Either way, get your extra seed like brassicas in before you tackle the rye.
How heavy did u seed the clover last year? That will have an impact on some of you brassica size, but guys are still getting some good looking bulbs in thick clover.

 

[YoungGuns]

Innovation is pretty sweet isn't it Scott. I know young gun is trying to get into the food plot biz in central wi, with all that expensive equipment and all. Your results are another prime example what little is needed to get picture perfect results, with minimal equipment, time and money. I have a hard time differentiating between right and left anymore. Don't be afraid of adding some cool season seed in that warm season plot. You'll keep those deer around all winter for a few extra bucks and a half hour.
That mature rye you got going there looks like it is ready to go. What's the plan with that?

Not a whole lot of equipment needed at our family farm, thanks to generations of hard work a lot of our setup was around before I was born. A Good ole Massey Ferguson, Grandpas little J.D. a caster, and a cultipacker get the job done for us. However, the big equipment on the other hand, is nice, but not needed to have a successful food plot. We've done many plots with our old John Deere skid steer, backhoe was never needed. That isn't to say that creating a field with the correct setup and choke points can't help make great encounters. Scott's plots are looking excellent, nice to see someone take a chance with something innovative.

 

[scott44]

I took Dipper's advice and added some brassicas to these plots today, 1-2lbs broadcast into it. No rain forecasted till maybe Wed.

 

[scott44]

We received 3/10 rain on tues. night, it looks like the plot is finally out growing the deer, pics have dropped off a little too. I might have some soys after all.

Buckwheat is flowering



Tilled side





No till side





Does and fawns still using it some pics have drooped off though.

 

[scott44]

The brassicas are coming in sparse, where the rye mulch was thicker there is hardly anything coming up.





I would have thought the brassica mix would have been the easiest to start, it might still fill in because there was some under the mulch that hasn't came through yet. I'll give it a month and see, if still sparse I'll put some cereals down too.

 

[scott44]

Almost looks like your spreader did not get the seed out past the one path in the middle? Or is there something different going on that we can not see?

Im'm not sure, I made one pass down and back with the spreader, each pass was towards the outside so this might be where they over lapped. The only thing I can see is the mulch is thinner where the brassicas are growing.

 

[scott44]

I broadcast a couple lbs. of brassicas into the bare areas of this brassica plot today. The brassicas that did come up are looking really good but they are sparse, not sure what happened. If this is still sparse labor day weekend I'll broadcast some rye and clover into it.







I got the brush hog out today and brush hogged the rye on the other side of this plot, trying to get the free seed from the rye. I also broadcast a couple lbs. of radishes into the rye before brush hogging.

 

[scott44]

Here's some pics yesterday of the comparison plots.

Everything looks ok except for some fall pancium invading the no-till side. The oats are starting to head out so I have a couple options, spray everything with cleth and kill the grasses and the oats or say to heck with it and let it go and get the free oat seed. Any sugestions?



Tilled side





No=till side, you can see all the grasses coming up.

 

[scott44]

Brassicas that came up are really doing good. We received our first rain today since the first of August so the brassicas I broadcast into the bare spots just saw their first moisture.



Some radishes are pretty big.

 

[scott44]

Brassicas plot is starting to fill in, I believe this is from where I over seeded into the bare spots.



I tried something else, this was a red clover and alfalfa plot I had and let half of it go all year with no cutting. Last weekend I broadcast some rye and oats into it and rolled it down. Not sure what to expect from this but there was a lot of clover seed in there.

This is what it looked like before, I didn't roll it all down.



Just to the left of the rolled down clover I sprayed last week for frost seeding switch, couple acres.



After



If this doesn't do anything else it should add some OM to this plot, this is real heavy clay and rock hard right now.

 

[scott44]

The brassicas are doing good.



Some of the bare spots are strting to fill in



As big as a size 13 Muck boot

 

[scott44]

They seem to be liking the rolled down clover/alfalfa and rye.

 

[scott44]

The brassicas plot is doing good.

Radishes are being topped by the deer.



Turnips are getting big.





The cereal grains broadcast into alfalfa/clover then rolled down seems to be doing well also.





Cereals are coming up through the mulch.



Pretty good layer of mulch to add OM to this plot.

 

[Dbltree]

1
You grow some outstanding plots Scott, I always look forward to your updates. :)