My Throw and Mows- Pluses and Minuses

[hilltopper]

Thanks to the willingness of so many to share their throw and mow experiences I was able to get several new plots started this fall. I have a 7' tiller, but so often my sandy soil dries out very quickly, and I like the soil health issues of T&M. I started four new small plots w T&M. You would probably call my plots "strips" as they are mostly in the same field. The method was a real time saver. Spray one day, and I could broadcast and mow the next. The time savings of not having to rototill was amazing. I got pretty good germination with rye, oats, and chicory. It didn't seem to matter whether the mulch was a little too thick or a little too thin.

However, I did not get good clover germination on three of the four plots. One thing you should know- I did not soil test, but relied on the previous results of immediately adjacent plots before they had been worked a couple years ago. My soils are acidic and my four new plots all had 2T of lime per acre applied in early July. I figured that they were likely to still have a pH of 4.5-5.5 at planting as there was not enough time for the lime to have much affect. I planted anyway figuring clover/oats/rye are pretty acid tolerant. I did get good clover germination on the field I planted latest, with the lightest mulch, and that also got the most consistent rain.

Questions: Could low pH account for clover germination failure? Or is it most likely due to germinating and then drying out? Or could it be the three sandhill cranes ( I love them) that marched up and down the plots for weeks? I thought they might be eating ungerminated oats/rye but maybe they like clover sprouts?

Go Pack!

 

[Semisane]

I know this defies logic, but I planted a 1/4 acre strip in mid-October with wheat, oats, chicory and Chickasaw clover using the spray/throw/roll method. I hadn't gotten a soil test on the strip and didn't know what to expect, but got great growth with everything. The picture below shows the growth of the clover the following spring. I got a soil test on the strip this month - the pH was 5.3. Go figure.


See the progress pictures of this plot from October through July here: http://habitat-talk.com/index.php?t...rt-updated-report-in-cmt-4-30-july-2016.5525/
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[yoderjac]

Thanks to the willingness of so many to share their throw and mow experiences I was able to get several new plots started this fall. I have a 7' tiller, but so often my sandy soil dries out very quickly, and I like the soil health issues of T&M. I started four new small plots w T&M. You would probably call my plots "strips" as they are mostly in the same field. The method was a real time saver. Spray one day, and I could broadcast and mow the next. The time savings of not having to rototill was amazing. I got pretty good germination with rye, oats, and chicory. It didn't seem to matter whether the mulch was a little too thick or a little too thin.

However, I did not get good clover germination on three of the four plots. One thing you should know- I did not soil test, but relied on the previous results of immediately adjacent plots before they had been worked a couple years ago. My soils are acidic and my four new plots all had 2T of lime per acre applied in early July. I figured that they were likely to still have a pH of 4.5-5.5 at planting as there was not enough time for the lime to have much affect. I planted anyway figuring clover/oats/rye are pretty acid tolerant. I did get good clover germination on the field I planted latest, with the lightest mulch, and that also got the most consistent rain.

Questions: Could low pH account for clover germination failure? Or is it most likely due to germinating and then drying out? Or could it be the three sandhill cranes ( I love them) that marched up and down the plots for weeks? I thought they might be eating ungerminated oats/rye but maybe they like clover sprouts?

Go Pack!

I have low pH but heavy clay soils. When I start a new plot, it won't support perennial clover on the first plant. I typically soil test and apply lime and fertilizer and plant with buckwheat (if in the spring) and Winter Rye (if in the fall). I will repeat the WR/BW cycle for two years before adding perennial clover to the WR in the fall. This is regardless of planting method.

With my clay, it takes a long time for lime to move through the soil. I have native pH in the same 4.5-5.5 range as you but once I amend the soil, the pH won't require maintenance lime for about 3 years. Lime moves very fast through sandy soil. So you may need to add lime in higher quantities on a more regular basis.

As for planting method, I view throw and mow as a long-term commitment to soil health, not a short-term improvement. With traditional tillage, we try to bend nature to our will fairly sharply. It requires lots of time and effort and high inputs and can produce short-term gains for quite a few years before the negative impacts can catch up with you. The better the soil you start with, the more abuse it can take for a longer period. With throw and mow we try to bend nature slightly. It requires less effort and time, but better timing. When you start with poor soils, it can many years to improve them but building OM at the surface level. What you are doing is trying to improve the microbiology of the soil and its ability to cycle nutrients. This method requires lots of patience and you need to be satisfied with less than perfect looking fields. Deer management doesn't require perfect looking fields as deer browse not graze.

A few tips:

1) Choose seed that tolerate a broad range of soil fertility and pH and that surface broadcast well. For example WR is generally a better choice than oats or WW as a cereal grain component.

2) Always keep the ground covered.

3) Change your view of weeds. Yes, there are some particularly problematic weeds that need to be dealt with, but in many cases, plants that are weeds to farmers are beneficial to us.

4) Don't judge your results by how your fields look. Make sure you have clear objectives and judge your success against those objectives. For example if your primary objective is to benefit the local deer herd, make sure you identify gaps in native and agricultural foods and plant to fill those gaps. If your objective is attraction at a specific time of the year, plant for that. Then in both cases monitor deer use during that specific period using highly reliable fast trigger trail cameras or exclusion cages. Everyone likes to post beautiful weed free fields and they look great and well enjoy the pictures, but they don't mean success. Any crop that does not end up in the belly of a deer (or other wildlife if you are managing for that) when the window for which it was planted closes is not contributing to your objective.

Best of luck,

Jack

 

[P0werUser]

Also consider putting out utilization cages every 4 weeks, helps you keep track of the pace of grazing.

 

[hilltopper]

Thanks Jack. I'm all in to the long-term here, and believe me I accept weeds in the food plot! I may try buckwheat next spring but it is difficult to grow anything that doesn't tolerate a lot of grazing. It didn't work for me on a prior plot. I'm not here for frost-seeding so I've got to figure out what to do with the plots next year. Maybe broadcast berseem clover in to the rye in April.

Ryan, I do have a utilization cage. Before I learned to do that I thought I couldn't grow anything. Turns out it was very heavy grazing. I grow amazing turnips inside the cages, not so much outside. I've only recently realized how important it is too move the cage or add a cage to get more current information.

 

[yoderjac]

Buckwheat is used by deer but generally not abused unless the plots are tiny or browse pressure is very heavy. If you can't get buckwheat to grow, it sounds like you have bigger issues than planting technique.