Rotating Plot Crops

[SD51555]

I got to pondering again this morning. I'm studying very hard to figure out how to work with nature to reduce input costs and avoid creating problems. I got to thinking about rotating my plantings from year to year. I have a small concern about creating pest problems in my plots.

So, if you rotate crops but stay in the family, are you really rotating enough to break the pest cycle? Example 1: If I plant rye this fall, then switch to green oats next fall, is that considered rotation, or am I still in the cereal family? Example 2: If I plant radish this fall and turnips and rape next year, is that considered rotation, or am I still in the same crop? Beans and cow peas the same? Corn and milo?

What say you?

 

[sandbur]

If you are talking about Cass county, I would stick with clover, rye /bit of oats, and brassica with lots of turnips in it. Do you have the equipment and time for corn/beans/ peas in Cass county?

Clover will put nitrogen in the ground and it could be left for several years and then rotated to brassica for a year.

For my tiny plots in Cass county, I have mostly clover and took out about half of it for turnips this year. I will probably frost seed clover into those areas next spring and take out the older clover for more turnips.

If I can get in the woods with my tiller, I might put in a tiny patch of rye. The ground is all ready sprayed, but I am not sure if I want to cut down trees up to open the trail up. Too many trespassers might be a problem.

 

[SD51555]

I'm not equipped to do much. We've got very tight lanes that will allow a truck to get "near" the plots, but as of now, I have to bushwhack a new trail to the plot. I learned this year that my original access point, while convenient, will go through a low spot that may never be dry enough in the spring to safely drive across. I can't risk burying a truck in the mud that far back. Often I'm up there alone and it would be an expensive mess to get help back there to get pulled out.

I'd personally never try corn because I couldn't grow enough of it to survive the bears and coons. I only have glyphosate, a walk behind brush mower, and a heavy upside down harrow for a poor man's roller. I've got access to a four wheeler. In spring when I terminate my rye, I'm planning on broadcasting into my standing rye then mowing it down to the ground. After that I'd just do laps with the four wheeler to pack it in. I won't even guess at what I'm going to plant yet, I'll change my mind too many times.

That said, my target legumes are cow peas, annual clover, and conventional beans. I want to stay away from perennial clover because I can't regularly mow and don' t want to use glyphosate continuously. I don't have easy access to water and a quality sprayer.

My brother and I have a lot of work left on our plot. We decided we're going to clean up the plot by hand and chainsaw. I'm going to just rent a stump grinder from Rapid Rental to try to get the stumps out. We'll start on one end and just keep keep working our way from the center to the edge. Eventually I'll get it cleaned up enough I can use the four wheeler in there. Next spring I won't plant much for trees at all, so stump grinding will be the target for the frost-out trip in early May.

 

[SD51555]

I have a customer that blows the rotation theory all to hell. He has planted Soybeans on the same patch of sand for over 20 years. Yield is almost always between 20 in the dry year, 40 bushel in the wet years. Soil has never changed and will never get any better. But he is happy!

Do you suppose I'm overthinking it then? As long as I continue to switch and blend I should worry about something else?

 

[sandbur]

How big is that foodplot?

I am really struggling with your decision on what to plant.

If deer and bear will destroy a corn plot, why try peas and conventional beans? How will you keep the beans weed free , if by chance they get past the browsing pressure? Will the peas get by the browsing pressure? It will all depend on the size of your plot and the deer population.

Annual clover will freeze out every year. I would only use it in a blend with perennial clovers in that country.

I would plant rye with a mixture of red and white clovers. If it is a small plot, just buy a mixture of buck on the bag, otherwise have Mo send you a few pounds of several clovers. Or stop at a store that has some open bags of clover and sells it by the pound. Medium red, alsike,are easy to grow and they work if the pH isn't perfect. Maybe invest in some white dutch,more expensive, but keep it separate for that trail that leads in there. The grouse will like it. Try a bit of ladino if you like. Maybe even birdsfoot trefoil in a some spots that might only be planted once and are hard to get to.

Take 1/3 of the clover patch out each year and plant brassica/rye, that includes lots of turnips. Frost seed clover into the brassica patch the next spring.

You will have feed for your deer for a long period of time, except for the deep snow period. Only corn works then or natural browse.

Beans, peas, and annual clover leaves too many gaps in the year that the deer will not have feed and is also to labor intensive if you are not going to visit the property on a very regular basis.

 

[foggy]

My property had a similar situation SD. I grew a little corn....and the coons loved it. No more corn.....too labor and N dependent. I do plant some RR Beans each year.....as I get the seed for free thru the MDHA branch near me and the deer eat well in mid summer. But.....most of my trails are seeded in clovers which include medium red and I have quite a lot of Alice White and some Ladino mixed in. Some of it was a blend I bought on the cheap. I put clover on all of my trails. It seems to last for a few years even in the shade. It controls the weeds pretty well with a mowing or a Gly treatment in the spring. I think I could "get by" without mowing.....but it fills-in better with mowing.

I like the "free" N that clover provides when I rotate to a brasica (or sugar beet) crop. Seems to build the soil quite well. I also grow some radish and rye as sandbar pointed out.

I bought an old pine plantation piece that Potlatch grew trees on. I have spent most of five + years getting the stumps out of my plots and trails. First with a rental grinder.....and now via my tractor and grinder. Land clearing and stump grinding was the most labor intensive part of my land development - and I'm more-or-less a do-it-yourself kinda guy. I'm not sure how I could have done the work if I wasn't retired. I now have about 8 acres of plots and a few miles of trails. Fun :)

A good 25 HP grinder will take out lots of stumps each day.....if you can get prepared and stay on it. If possible I nuke the land the fall before where I plant grind the stumps the following year. We flag all the stumps so they are easy to find in the grass and brush. I believe I did over 200 stumps a day via rental grinders.....on my pine stumps. I did have an ideal situation tho....the stumps were sheared about 6" above ground. I ground them all to about 8" deep and they have not been much of a concern to my disk or tiller.

 

[SD51555]

How big is that foodplot?

I am really struggling with your decision on what to plant.

If deer and bear will destroy a corn plot, why try peas and conventional beans? How will you keep the beans weed free , if by chance they get past the browsing pressure? Will the peas get by the browsing pressure? It will all depend on the size of your plot and the deer population.

Annual clover will freeze out every year. I would only use it in a blend with perennial clovers in that country.

I would plant rye with a mixture of red and white clovers. If it is a small plot, just buy a mixture of buck on the bag, otherwise have Mo send you a few pounds of several clovers. Or stop at a store that has some open bags of clover and sells it by the pound. Medium red, alsike,are easy to grow and they work if the pH isn't perfect. Maybe invest in some white dutch,more expensive, but keep it separate for that trail that leads in there. The grouse will like it. Try a bit of ladino if you like. Maybe even birdsfoot trefoil in a some spots that might only be planted once and are hard to get to.

Take 1/3 of the clover patch out each year and plant brassica/rye, that includes lots of turnips. Frost seed clover into the brassica patch the next spring.

You will have feed for your deer for a long period of time, except for the deep snow period. Only corn works then or natural browse.

Beans, peas, and annual clover leaves too many gaps in the year that the deer will not have feed and is also to labor intensive if you are not going to visit the property on a very regular basis.

From walking the property I do have quite a bit of clover growing wild. I'm not sure what it is, perhaps a red. It has really large leaves for clover. If I went with beans or peas, it would only be in a blend, not pure stands. As soon as the rye hits soft dough stage, I'd seed into it a blend of beans or peas, and some milo, and maybe sunflowers. As the beans or peas start to dry down, overseed with brassica. Then each other year I'd plant rye/brassica.

I just don't know. I spent less time deciding where to go to college and whether to transfer for work. Tree, plot, and dinner choices cripple me with indecision.

 

[foggy]

From walking the property I do have quite a bit of clover growing wild. I'm not sure what it is, perhaps a red. It has really large leaves for clover. If I went with beans or peas, it would only be in a blend, not pure stands. As soon as the rye hits soft dough stage, I'd seed into it a blend of beans or peas, and some milo, and maybe sunflowers. As the beans or peas start to dry down, overseed with brassica. Then each other year I'd plant rye/brassica.

I just don't know. I spent less time deciding where to go to college and whether to transfer for work. Tree, plot, and dinner choices cripple me with indecision.

Grin. I know the feeling. Hard to put anything into stone.....as there are lots of options. For example......if you plant beans.....get Round-up Ready beans and weeds are easy to handle......and that will fix some n and the plot will be weed free for later use. Add those peas.....and the weed control goes down the drain. Decisions / decisions. ;)

 

[SD51555]

Fair enough.