First year with no till, looking for advice on prepping for fall planting

[Farmsteader]

I used my new 606NT great plains drill to plant my summer cover cops. I am in central Wisconsin Zone 4B with sandy soil. I ended up planting the summer over crops the second week of May, A little earlier than I wanted due to leaving for a month vacation.

The plot below is planted in Alberta Lee’s Summermax CC6 cover crop. This field is my oldest field and over the years due to my heavy tilling practices has resulted in a loss of organic material. Years ago I had a very nice stand on white clover. Now after planting round up ready corn and soybeans I have been struggling to get clover to make it through the summer heat. I did spray the field with round up to kill the weeds before I planted, but you can see I have a all full lot of nasty grasses competing with the cover crop. I’m planning on planting a mix of winter rye, Austrian winter peas, crimson clover and hairy vetch some where around August 15th . My questions are do I drive my UTV and spray the field with roundup, wait a week then mow it with the flail mover and then plant with the no till. Or do I plant it while it’s still standing then spray.

 

[Farmsteader]

Here is a plot planted in Buckwheat. This is the best results I have ever had. Not sure if it’s due using the no till or just all the rain we have had. I planted it into a nice plot of clover that died over the winter due no snow cover. I got to think planting into the clove thatch did help. I’m planing on drilling in a Brasicus mix. Due to how thick it is I don’t know if I need to spray the whole field. I think I’ll just spot stray where I missed with the drill. I might try and get this planted a little earlier ( maybe August 1st ) to limit the number of volunteer buckwheat.

 

[Westwind]

Are you 100% sure they are grasses? I see that mix is 20% oats, 10% Japanese millet and 10% sorghum sudan grass.

I personally wouldn’t be worried about buckwheat reseeding. It will, but maybe not the worst thing that can happen on year 1. You will get more input from experienced people here but I would spot spray the places you missed and stick to your recommended brassica planting dates. Too early isn’t good for palatability.

I think you have a good start there.