Looking for some input on custom summer/fall release process

[Hoytvectrix]

Situation: This is in northern MO. Have a drill for May planting, but may not have one for the fall planting. We do not own or have access to a crimper or cultipacker. Fields are currently planted with a decent stand of cereal rye. Soils are a medium textured silt loam with 4% OM. Deer density is high but there is quite a bit of ag around.

We have a few fields that we have been E-fencing with field beans with some moderate success. We are looking to move away from that and a little more towards the Green Cover Summer/Fall release process. We currently have a decent stand of rye that will be terminated via glyphosate and/or mowing in the next week or two. We are planning on drilling in a summer mixture similar to what green cover has for the summer release, or using something like Albert Lea's Summer Max CC6. We do not have a crimper or cultipacker yet, so our thought process is to either mow the summer mix in August or just try to broadcast the fall blend and see what comes up. We are not certain we will have access to a drill in the fall, so we would prefer to not count on having access to it. The fall mixture would be several brassicas, followed by a broadcasting of cereal rye and crimsom clover.

We are thinking the above mentioned summer release mixtures will be too thick for broadcasting the brassicas, clover, and rye into without mowing them down first. If yes, is it a waste of time to mess with the summer release process if we will need to mow these stands anyways? There are already going to be 100+ acres of beans in the area anyways, so we know that there will be plenty of summer browse and to a lessor extent less browse pressure on our plots.

I appreciate any input at all.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

Just thinking out loud here - That AL Summer Max CC6 looks like it'd create a ton of residue so I wonder if you'd end up with too much thatch? Would you be using a bush hog mower on it? A flail would spread it more even but I almost wonder if having it thick and even would result in less emergence than having more thin spots.

I'd think you'd want seed down before you mowed to get it to the ground? The pictures on AL's site with 6 weeks growth on a july 4th planting suggests you'd have a ton of growth if you planted late May and waited until August to plant again.

Would be nice if you could get a drill again in August and maybe buzz a little off the top of the taller growth that might create too much shade.

 

[omicron1792]

You can broadcast fall mix into summer mix, heavy, and it will explode when summer mix dies out. I plant directly into summer mix. With drill I do nothing else. You don’t need to mow, spray, or crimp summer crops going into fall. All will self terminate with weather change.

Without drill, I would broadcast then mow summer crop on top of it in late September. Will do great. You can also broadcast then spray with gly and don’t mow. The summer grains will stay standing but dead and give great cover in plot and additional food. Or just broadcast.

If broadcasting I would go heavy, like 150-200lbs of the grain component.

 

[Hoytvectrix]

Would be nice if you could get a drill again in August and maybe buzz a little off the top of the taller growth that might create too much shade.

That is exactly what we are going to try and do. We are renting from local NRCS, which is about 30 minutes away. We also have a neighbor that has the same drill and has offered to lend us his but we are always uneasy about borrowing equipment. Really kicking ourselves for not buying one from Tar River a few years ago.

Thanks for the input.

 

[Hoytvectrix]

You can broadcast fall mix into summer mix, heavy, and it will explode when summer mix dies out. I plant directly into summer mix. With drill I do nothing else. You don’t need to mow, spray, or crimp summer crops going into fall. All will self terminate with weather change.

Without drill, I would broadcast then mow summer crop on top of it in late September. Will do great. You can also broadcast then spray with gly and don’t mow. The summer grains will stay standing but dead and give great cover in plot and additional food. Or just broadcast.

If broadcasting I would go heavy, like 150-200lbs of the grain component.

This is very helpful. Thanks for the response. We will try and get the drill for the fall planting. If not, I will follow-up with what we end up learning.

 

[omicron1792]

This is very helpful. Thanks for the response. We will try and get the drill for the fall planting. If not, I will follow-up with what we end up learning.

I didn’t believe it either. But I did it last year every way. And planting into standing plants with drill and doing nothing else worked best.

Check out this thread. Pictures of me doing that exact thing

Green cover summer release and fall release pics.

Same field. Summer release. Fall release roday

habitat-talk.com

 

[Hoytvectrix]

We drilled in the Albert Lea's Summer Max CC6 back on June 17th and had to wait about two weeks for rain. We used the the main seed hopper (setting 37, drive type two) of a Great Plains drill with 7.5 inch rows. The seedlings are finally starting to emerge and are large enough to identify plants and emergence rates. So far, I have been pretty impressed by what is coming up. I have put out a few exclusion cages in each of the two plots to see what gets browsed.

We will see how much rain comes through the next few weeks, but the plan is to still mow/terminate this and broadcast a brassica and clover mix over the top in mid-August.

 

[Hoytvectrix]

Just documenting for my own and other's sake. Here is the Albert Lea's SummerMax blend with about 5 weeks of growth. We did add about 10 lbs/acre of forage soybeans to this, but I have yet to find a single plant. I'm assuming they all got nipped off already.

Deer have been hammering the buckwheat and cowpeas. Interestingly, we have been getting about as many deer in this plot as an adjacent soybean field.

The big question is how to terminate/transition to a fall plot with a crimper. We are testing out strips of combinations of mowing and spraying with glyphosate. We are also leaving an untouched strip to see how the summer blend is used in the fall and winter. Most of the plants have not flowered yet.

 

[GMan5465]

A great looking stand! That’s going to help your organic matter numbers and provide a great mulch layer for the fall crops. Did you have a typical rain year? I’ve planted that and their Diversimax product. The first year, no drill…the second year, no rain. What did grow, I sprayed with two quarts an acre of glyphosate and then rolled a few days later.

 

[omicron1792]

Just documenting for my own and other's sake. Here is the Albert Lea's SummerMax blend with about 5 weeks of growth. We did add about 10 lbs/acre of forage soybeans to this, but I have yet to find a single plant. I'm assuming they all got nipped off already.

Deer have been hammering the buckwheat and cowpeas. Interestingly, we have been getting about as many deer in this plot as an adjacent soybean field.

The big question is how to terminate/transition to a fall plot with a crimper. We are testing out strips of combinations of mowing and spraying with glyphosate. We are also leaving an untouched strip to see how the summer blend is used in the fall and winter. Most of the plants have not flowered yet.

You don’t have to terminate it. Just drill fall mix into it and that’s it.

 

[Hoytvectrix]

You don’t have to terminate it. Just drill fall mix into it and that’s it.

Unfortunately, I don't have access to a drill currently. Just broadcast the brassica and clover blend. Fortunately, got quite a bit of rain after. It will be interesting to see which of transition practices/combinations is best.

I think we will likely be buying our own drill this off-season.

 

[Hoytvectrix]

A great looking stand! That’s going to help your organic matter numbers and provide a great mulch layer for the fall crops. Did you have a typical rain year? I’ve planted that and their Diversimax product. The first year, no drill…the second year, no rain. What did grow, I sprayed with two quarts an acre of glyphosate and then rolled a few days later.

We had fairly timely rains throughout July and into August so far. May and June were brutal for lack of rain.

I sprayed some, mowed some, and left others.

 

[Brian662]

Very interested to see how this turns out for fall. Looks like your summer mix did great!