The Throw n’ Mow Method
- Thread starter Crimson n' Camo
- Start date
RJAJr
A good 3 year old buck
Hello all need some advice, while this is not full blow throw and mow but I am wondering if I should try it yet this fall. The situation is I have my bow stand located near a bottle neck which contains an opening in the wood that gets part sun. Right now it is mostly canary grass, some weeds but mostly grass. This is a new property for me and I just sort of discovered this little gem, maybe 1/8th to 1/4 acre of open ground in grass and weeds. I got a gly kill on it two weeks ago and I hit it again today. My expectation is the gly will be of limited effectiveness given the time of year. The canary grass while green on the tops is already yellowing at the stem. But gly is relatively cheap and I wanted to get a jump on weed control at the very least.
Location - Central Wisconsin
Goal - Establish a cover crop of Winter Rye and then get the plot into a clover pass through kill plot for next season.
Option 1 - Keeping it simple by broadcasting 50 lbs of winter rye into the standing grass then mowing the whole thing down and calling it good for the year. The grass is fairly thick and I can see a thatch layer already at the ground level. I am concerned the seed will not reach the soil in a manner needed to establish a dense cover crop.
Option 2 - Mow and light till as I can get my tractor back there but it's tight. Then broadcast 50 lbs of winter rye, rake it in.
Year 2 will be terminate the rye, continue to spary for spring and summer weeds and grass. Then seed it with a mix with the intention of establishing a perennial clover plot going forward. The site gets enough sunlight for white clover to do very well.
Lets hear what y'all think!
Thanks in advance!
Location - Central Wisconsin
Goal - Establish a cover crop of Winter Rye and then get the plot into a clover pass through kill plot for next season.
Option 1 - Keeping it simple by broadcasting 50 lbs of winter rye into the standing grass then mowing the whole thing down and calling it good for the year. The grass is fairly thick and I can see a thatch layer already at the ground level. I am concerned the seed will not reach the soil in a manner needed to establish a dense cover crop.
Option 2 - Mow and light till as I can get my tractor back there but it's tight. Then broadcast 50 lbs of winter rye, rake it in.
Year 2 will be terminate the rye, continue to spary for spring and summer weeds and grass. Then seed it with a mix with the intention of establishing a perennial clover plot going forward. The site gets enough sunlight for white clover to do very well.
Lets hear what y'all think!
Thanks in advance!
S.T.Fanatic
5 year old buck +
I think mix the clover in with it this year.
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Wind Gypsy
5 year old buck +
If it is a solid stand of RCG where it's been for a while and has formed sort of a sod, i'd disc that stuff up or you're going to have a tough time getting seed to soil contact surface broadcasting. Even if you do it might get choked out by re-emerging canary grass. A mowing and a couple sprayings last spring then drilling through the sod with a no till drill wasn't enough for my seed to do well last year (evidence in the "sorghum screen fail" thread). Where I disked it up parallel to last year's failure and planted this spring, it's doing great. Where I sprayed it all spring and summer last year then drilled rye/clover into it mid Sept is also doing well now, but that is with more time to kill it and drilling through the sod into soil. If you have a RCG sod mat anything like I had, it's gonna take more than "light" disk passes to get rid of that sod mat.
If there isn't a solid sod mat, you might do well just to spray then throw n mow.
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Wind Gypsy
5 year old buck +
Agreed. If you want a good red or white clover plot next fall, best time to plant it is this fall.
SD51555
5 year old buck +
I'd throw all low-carbon plants in there and let them eat up that RCG residue. Big seeded legumes would be best, but a plot that small ain't gonna make it in beans or peas. I would go with rapeseed, white clover, an annual clover, buckwheat, and turnips. I think if you put rye into that, it'll struggle and you're going to get an explosion of stinging nettle, thistle, and the county's most prevalent super weeds. Might not hurt to pitch 100 pounds of gypsum on there too, that would boost your non-grass species.
Then I'd plan to broadcast into it again in early spring with a high tonnage crop like forage oats or a forage triticale.
woodyjeremiah
Yearling... With promise
Well it was a little early for our area but threw out some seed on a few fields Saturday and got a good rain down there today with more to come. Mowed them a week back then sprayed Saturday and spread seed. Vitalize mix on one field then wheat oats rye clover and brassicas on the others, probably 90-95% grains. Got another mix to put out on our big field to test out and need to get some rye to overseed on all the fields. Looking forward to see how this works out but if I can manage the saplings popping up here and there it should go well.
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What is rain…? I haven’t had a drop in over 70 days.
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woodyjeremiah
Yearling... With promise
It’d been about a month for us. Luckily/ unluckily a hurricane is coming through so definitely gonna get some.
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I terminated a really nice rye field in the summer by mowing it as high as I could. I then sprayed the field with gly one time and broadcasted turnips, rape, and radishes in the thick thatch that was left. I ran a cultipacker over it and called it good. No amendments. We got a real nice rain the next day as predicted - for a change. That was the first rain I got in a long time. I checked a week later and had real good germination. It then got real hot and dry - 95 to 101 all week kind of stuff. I checked it toward the end of the hot week and could still ball up soil under the duff. It was a humid week and that probably helped. We luckily got another good rain on it last weekend. I think having the thick thatch carried me through the hot and dry spell.
It's a little thick in some spots but it's kind of hard for me to judge how much I am putting down vs what will germinated by doing it this way. So far, so good. It's a little over an acre. I sprayed the grass coming up in it with cleth a couple days ago.
No doubt this was made possible by 2 good rains.
It's a little thick in some spots but it's kind of hard for me to judge how much I am putting down vs what will germinated by doing it this way. So far, so good. It's a little over an acre. I sprayed the grass coming up in it with cleth a couple days ago.
No doubt this was made possible by 2 good rains.
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PatinPA
5 year old buck +
Just did a throw and pray yesterday. Brassicas I planted in August are pretty spotty and the plot was pretty weedy. Threw down oats because I probably won't make it back up for a while. Going to be really hot this week so I'm hoping for a nice thunderstorm to get some rain. If that doesn't work I'll come in with some rye in the middle of September.
Rain in the forecast for the first time in 70+ days… I bought the seed, and will be throwing and mowing Saturday. These are also the lowest temps we have had since early may.
Three bags for the place I’m working on, and 3 bags for my dad’s place an hour away.
I decided to do the full recommended 100lb/acre seeding rate of the more diverse blend I posted a couple weeks ago PLUS 50lbs/acre of the predominantly cereal grain mix on as well. As discussed earlier, this is in a fallow field that is dormant from the summer heat and this years severe drought, so I don’t expect to terminate existing perennial warm season grasses well… I am definitely over-applying, but I’d rather have a well germinated and stunted plot than no plot at all.
Below is a picture of what will be the plot taken a couple months ago when things were still green.
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Three bags for the place I’m working on, and 3 bags for my dad’s place an hour away.
I decided to do the full recommended 100lb/acre seeding rate of the more diverse blend I posted a couple weeks ago PLUS 50lbs/acre of the predominantly cereal grain mix on as well. As discussed earlier, this is in a fallow field that is dormant from the summer heat and this years severe drought, so I don’t expect to terminate existing perennial warm season grasses well… I am definitely over-applying, but I’d rather have a well germinated and stunted plot than no plot at all.
Below is a picture of what will be the plot taken a couple months ago when things were still green.
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I saw a decent forecast here in NE Ohio, Monday hung with the family then at 4 PM drove the 1.5 hours to the property to get the layer of grains down - doing triticale and had some left over wheat and oats and a bit of brassicas. Got home at midnight but the seed was on the dirt; today we got 0.3” and man am I happy. Sometimes plans don’t work, but it’s so gratifying when they do… hope you get your rain!
Got both plots on the place in. Now it is just a waiting game.
This one ticks up against a pond on the south, and some good cover to the west. I’m standing on the pond dam to take the picture.
And this one is pretty out in the open. There is cover to the east, and a seasonal creek borders 2 sides of the plot. Surprisingly, deer seem more comfortable in this open area than basically any place else on the farm. The tall cottonwood tree above and left of the feeder will be where the tree stand ends up. Clean access from the north, if I’m quiet. The deer in the plot won’t be able to see me until I’m half way up the tree. 55 yard shot.
Just a bit of an example of what the fallow field looked like in the beginning…
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This one ticks up against a pond on the south, and some good cover to the west. I’m standing on the pond dam to take the picture.
And this one is pretty out in the open. There is cover to the east, and a seasonal creek borders 2 sides of the plot. Surprisingly, deer seem more comfortable in this open area than basically any place else on the farm. The tall cottonwood tree above and left of the feeder will be where the tree stand ends up. Clean access from the north, if I’m quiet. The deer in the plot won’t be able to see me until I’m half way up the tree. 55 yard shot.
Just a bit of an example of what the fallow field looked like in the beginning…
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Well, that GORGEOUS forecast fell through… the temps dropped, but what looked like guaranteed good rains for 5 straight days turned into one rain on Monday of 0.15” and one rain on Wednesday of 0.13”.
With no further rain in the forecast, and basically a 0% starting soil moisture, I’m betting I don’t get much germination for now. If it is a while until it rains again, perhaps no germination is better than everything starting and just dying off out of lack of moisture.
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With no further rain in the forecast, and basically a 0% starting soil moisture, I’m betting I don’t get much germination for now. If it is a while until it rains again, perhaps no germination is better than everything starting and just dying off out of lack of moisture.
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woodyjeremiah
Yearling... With promise
Got to check on 2 of the 3 plots I put out 3 weeks ago. The killdown with a backpack sprayer worked great but germination on one field was almost non existent, the other was coming up but still really small. Had 2” of rain since planting. Hogs and other critters I think where the main problem with the one field in just taking all the seed away basically. My plan was to throw n mow everything this fall but the weather is probably going to change that. Tomorrow’s the only day I have to plant until November so I think we’re going to lightly disk in the seed to try and get it covered so the animals don’t eat all of it before a rain comes. At worst I’ll make sure to get some rye out in November when this most likely fails.
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omicron1792
5 year old buck +
You have to have patience with throw and mow. Tis still early
woodyjeremiah
Yearling... With promise
Yeah I feel pretty decent about the one plot but with all the pictures of hogs I got on the other I’m not sure there was a seed left to germinate on it. Will wait for some rain and throw down some rye pretty heavy on that one. Who knows when that’s gonna be, looking pretty dry for awhile right now.
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Bearswamper
A good 3 year old buck
Just recently joined and been catching up by reading this thread. So far, it reconciles with much of what we have been doing at our camp. We have one small patch that had most of the topsoil stripped off ( to make dirt backstops for a shooting range leaving sand/ clay mix -mostly clay that would just stay wet. I limed and fertilized then planted buckwheat early, then broadcast rye/ clover mix. I repeated this for 3 years and now much of the patch has a thick stand of clover. You just have to be patient as it takes time to build up the organics.
