Looking for some Throw N Mow/ Roll crop rotation strategy advice

[eclipseman]

All,
I currently have 2 food plots which I have done identical type plantings using normal tilling methods for the past few years. Both plots are 2 acres each and are divided half clover and half Brassica mix(PPT/DEX/Hog Radish). Earlier this summer I decided to give throw n mow(roll) technique a try on a portion of one of my left over brassica sections from last year. I planted buckwheat in spring and then 10 days ago broadcasted my brassica mix and fertilizer into the standing buckwheat and rolled it over. Well, needless to say it came in just fine compared to the other brassica plots I did my normal till type plantings and I feel pretty sold on the technique. I now want to commit to doing strictly throw and mow(roll) moving forward but I am not sure what to do. Both my plots are growing for this fall already so I really wont be starting until spring but the question is where do I go from here? As I have stated, half the plots are clover and are young clover so I want to let those go for a few years but the other halves that I have been doing in brassicas... what should I do this spring? Do I plant buckwheat or maybe cereal rye and then TnM brassica mix in august like my little test this year? If so, what do I do the following year now that I will have a layer of thatch from the previous year...how do you get the buckwheat or rye growing in this layer? What is the process for TnM from year to year and do you rotate your crops? The goal is to have a variety of browse to keep the whitetails interested while helping my soil and using less fertilizer. Thanks for any and all advice!

 

[Rit]

I am basically in your same situation. Last year was my first year with TNM on marginal soil that needs a lot of improvements. I put in 1 3/4 acres of WR, AWPs, radish, and clover into 4’ high weeds and volunteer brasssicas.

I didn’t do anything to it this spring other than let it grow and go to seed. Within the next 10 days I will be broadcasting the same mix back into the WR and clover.

I am also adding 3 additional acres this fall into a destination feeding area. The area is currently in buckwheat, clover, ragweed and heavy foxtail. I plan to spray the 3 acre section and then broadcast WR, radish, and clover into the field. One acre will have a 4-way clover mix in with the WR. The other two acres will have clover but will be crimson or a medium red.

The acre with the 4-way clover I will clip the WR a few times the following year and hope to use that as a food source until the clover goes dormant in the summer. Then in the fall I will broadcast more WR and radish into the plot and repeat the process until the clover dies out or utilization stops.

The other two acres I plan to let one of them go natural like I did with the 1 3/4 acre plot the year before. The third 1 acre section I plan to put in a spring/summer TNM which will have buckwheat and probably another seed option or 2. A little trial and error on my part but I would like to rotate the 2 acres not in the 4-way clover each year with a spring plot before broadcasting WR in the fall. Once the 4-way clover area runs its course I will roatate that with one of the other 2 acres and start the process over.

 

[yoderjac]

For understanding the principles behind techniques and soil health, google "Ray the Soil Guy" and watch some of his videos.

For understanding how to apply those principles to small equipment and food plotting, read through some of the Crimson N Camo's throw and mow threads.

Much of what works best will depend on your region, soil type, and equipment available. I can tell you what works well in my area but they may not be best for you. Perhaps you can modify accordingly.

I keep many of my smaller plots in perennial clover. I like Durana for my area because of it's persistence and drought tolerance. I can get 10 years out of a Durana planting some times. I am quite weed tolerant especially when it comes to clover but there are a few specific weeds like Marestail that can be problematic for me. My approach is to use best practice to establish a weed free clover field to start and than become quite weed tolerant. In most cases, simply mowing right before the fall season when night time temperatures are dropping and rain is ample is enough to favor the clover and have it bounce back strong. Eventually though weeds will take over.

The best practice for me is to always plant clover in the fall with a Winter Rye nurse crop. Then, it is important to keep the WR mowed the following spring each time it hits a foot. I mow it back to 6" for durana. This releases the clover without killing the WR. The WR combats weeds until it eventually dies on its own in the summer. By then they Durana has established its root system and has filled in. After that first spring, I only mow once or twice a year.

Once the field is getting old and weeds are really taking over, I'll use a technique to extend the life for a few more years. I'll suppress the clover. This can be done by busyhogging it flat, or by spraying it with 1 qt/ac gly. This will top-kill the clover and kill all grasses and most weeds. I have a little 4' Kasco Versa drill that I use to drill radish and WR into the clover. I actually drill before I spray. These will help use some of the N that the clover has fixed over the years. That build-up of N is one factor that makes the field attractive to grasses and other weeds. The radish and WR will germinate and get above the clover before it bounces back from the root system.

Eventually, though a clover field will wear-out and need rotation. Buckwheat in the spring and radish in the fall can be a good year of rotation to use up the banked N. You can also plant sunflowers in the spring instead of buckwheat if your field is large enough and deer numbers low enough to allow them to grow. In cases of high deer numbers or a small field, sorghum can be mixed with the buckwheat. This is just one option, but the key is choosing N seeking crops that surface broadcast well.

Deer don't seem to use most brassica at my place in the summer. In my area, warm season annuals are a challenge. Buckwheat does well because it is very competitive against weeds. Deer use it but don't abuse it. Many things like sunflowers, soybeans, IC peas, and such are like ice cream to deer. The competition from weeds combined with the browse pressure means that most warm season annuals won't provide more than one bite for deer and then they are gone.

In order for me to get soybeans to establish and canopy, I needed to plant 7 acres of RR forage beans. Eventually, I got deer numbers down enough to use less expensive RR ag beans. Either way, I would surface broadcast a cover crop. For forage beans which grew thick enough and did not yellow until very late, I had to mow lanes: http://www.habitat-talk.com/index.p...d-corn-field-transfered-from-qdma-forum.5543/ For ag beans I'd just wait for them to start turning yellow. I then surface broadcast a cover crop. In my area, I like WR, Crimson Clover (Acts as a reseeding annual in my area), and Purple Top Turnip.

The following spring, I used a tiller to terminate the PTT. I would lift the tiller high enough with my 3-pt hitch so that it barely contacted the ground. This would terminate the tunips but not disrupt the WR and CC enough to kill them. They would bounce back quickly and cover the early spring until I was ready to drill soybeans. Keep in mind that you need a no-till drill for larger seeded row crops like soybeans, corn, sunflowers, etc.

I recently had a problem with a weed that is naturally resistant to glyphosate, Marestail. I stopped planting soybeans this year and used buckwheat instead. Buckwheat has a wide planting window which gave me the time necessary to use 24D Ester to control the Marestail and allow enough time for the soil residual effect to subside before planting buckwheat. Buckwheat also acts as a smother crop to crowd out the Marestail. I will surface broadcast the same cover crop into the buckwheat for fall using throw and mow. I'll probably use buckwheat instead of soybeans for a few years until things are well under control.

There are enough different crops in this mix with spring fall rotation that I can repeat it year after year.

So, that is how I'm doing it, but again, you will need to adapt for your region and soils.

Speaking of soils, I have heavy clay. It is very acidic and requires over 3 tons/ac for initial amendment but lime moves very slowly through clay. Once amended, I only need about 1 ton/ac of maintenance lime every 3 or 4 years. I simply top dress it and don't till it in. It works slower but I apply it before the pH drops too much so slow is not bad. Working slowly means lasting longer.

I also only topdress fertilizer. I fertilize only for P and K requirements when I plant clover and don't fertilize clover after that. For soybeans, I again only fertilize for P and K requirements even when I include a light mix of RR corn in my beans. I only fertilize these fields in the spring before planting the beans and not in the fall when planting the cover crop. This year, I did not even fertilize the buckwheat at all and won't fertilize this fall.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Steven Tolly]

I am in about the same spot as you. I just had my plots drilled this year in beans and brassicas. I think the buckwheat idea is a good one. When I have used it it grows fast and full. I am glad to see it worked for you I was planning on doing that next spring for the ones that are not in beans. It is also interesting to hear about the light amount of fertilizer being applied. I am hoping to avoid fertilizer cost as much as possible, but will apply as needed.

 

[yoderjac]

Fertilizer recommendations are focused at farmers growing monocultures. Soil tests tell you how much of a particular element is in the soil along with pH along with the CEC (https://www.spectrumanalytic.com/support/library/ff/CEC_BpH_and_percent_sat.htm). Fertilizer recommendations look at what is available and what a particular plant requires to perform optimally as a monoculture. Most tests don't measure N at all. Many of the tests that food plotters use don't ask all the questions necessary to make an accurate estimate of the fertilizer required. For example, does your soil test ask your soil type, when you last applied lime and how much? Does it ask what crop you planted in the field the previous year and the yield of that crop? Some of the more sophisticated tests do, but can we as food plotters really answer a question like yield like a farmer can?

A farmer is operating off a different agenda. His question is not "how much doe fertilizer cost?". He asks, "Given my estimate of crop price, with the cost of doing X (adding fertilizer or whatever) be more or less than the profit differential related to yield when I sell the crop?".

A lot of folks in the deer community talk about all the nutrients a deer needs to flourish and relate that to the nutrient content of fertilized crops. However the reality is that our food plots are a small fraction of the total diet of a deer. Deer are browsers and eat a huge variety of plants, both native and planted. What is important is that the crops we plant are healthy and extracting the nutrients they need from the soil.

I started with traditional tillage and did soil tests and limed and fertilized as recommended. I've found that as I've moved to minimizing tillage, building OM, and improving nutrient cycling, that I see no noticeable difference in the crops or deer use when cutting back on fertilizer. I'm sure eventually, I'll hit a point where I will see a difference. I've been completely ignoring N recommendations for many years and seen zero negative effects. I do use DAP to fertilize P and it does have a small percentage of N in it, but that is the only added N my crops ever see. They seem to find enough from the legumes I include in my mixes and rotations.

I rent a buggy from the local coop which is 10 miles away to fertilize. I only do it once a year for my soybeans and this year I planted buckwheat and used none. I got a great buckwheat crop.

I would say, that once you get the basics down, watch your crops and how deer relate to them and let them tell you if something is wrong.

Thanks,

Jack