The Throw n’ Mow Method

[Crimson n' Camo]

It's amazing at the extent to which money manipulates the message.....I'll just leave it at that

"Cash rules everything around me.....dolla dolla bills y'all"
-- Wu Tang Clan

 

[SD51555]

View attachment 29475
I have been attempting a couple tnm plots each year for the past three years. This is my first one, this spring, that I actually consider a success. But even this one was much slower to establish when I planted last fall than my other plots. I dont ever plant before the first week of Oct due to army worms and dry september weather. Conventional tillage plots at my place will germinate much quicker - I guess due to at least some existing soil moisture. My conventional tillage plots are lush and ready to go by hunting season. The tnm plots, not so much.

Throw and mow should smoke any tilled or sprayed planting. If it's not working, don't give up. Figure out why it isn't working. Spraying and tilling shuts down your soil's ability to deliver nutrients and handle swings in moisture.

What is it that you're mowing and sewing? You could have a mow species that doesn't submit after the mowing. You could have C:N ratios out of whack. Mowing a high carbon crop and planting another high carbon crop to follow it would struggle. Mowing a low carbon crop and planting another low carbon crop could invite a weed invasion while your seed is waiting to germinate. Mix and timing are important. I don't even have it right yet, but i'm working on it.

 

[TreeDaddy]

Throw and mow should smoke any tilled or sprayed planting. If it's not working, don't give up. Figure out why it isn't working. Spraying and tilling shuts down your soil's ability to deliver nutrients and handle swings in moisture.

What is it that you're mowing and sewing? You could have a mow species that doesn't submit after the mowing. You could have C:N ratios out of whack. Mowing a high carbon crop and planting another high carbon crop to follow it would struggle. Mowing a low carbon crop and planting another low carbon crop could invite a weed invasion while your seed is waiting to germinate. Mix and timing are important. I don't even have it right yet, but i'm working on it.

As stated above, don't give up

tangible results may not be evident in year 1 or two

I am starting 6th year with TnM.....I'm a believer....

bill

PS, don't forget the gypsum,baby!!!!!!!

 

[SwampCat]

Throw and mow should smoke any tilled or sprayed planting. If it's not working, don't give up. Figure out why it isn't working. Spraying and tilling shuts down your soil's ability to deliver nutrients and handle swings in moisture.

What is it that you're mowing and sewing? You could have a mow species that doesn't submit after the mowing. You could have C:N ratios out of whack. Mowing a high carbon crop and planting another high carbon crop to follow it would struggle. Mowing a low carbon crop and planting another low carbon crop could invite a weed invasion while your seed is waiting to germinate. Mix and timing are important. I don't even have it right yet, but i'm working on it.

I have tried this on two different plots, three years in a row. So that is six plantings. I would call one a success. I dont have a weed invasion while my seed is waiting to germinate - I am doing this first couple of weeks in October - and very few weeds are establishing at that time. I am planting wheat and durana clover. There are a variety of weeds in the plots. I dont have the luxury of timing. I plant when I have the time. I cant just drop everything and go plant when conditions are perfect. In my opinion, if a planting’s success is based on perfect timing - that is not a very good way to plant. I plant thirty or forty acres of plots and I cant time them all to match the best conditions.

I am doing this just because I want to become successful with this method. I have 30 some odd acres of other plots of mostly durana and wheat. The durana is established and I pull a Woods seeder through the plot with the disk gang set up high - where it only disturbs about half the soil surface and leaves the other half untouched - and plant wheat into the durana plots. This disk blades only dig about an inch deep and are destroying very little organic matter. The problem with durana in the south is the heat and typical drought usually beats it back so bad that there is very little forage attraction for deer in Oct and November. This necessitates planting something that greens up quick - like wheat - so you have something to hunt over until the clover puts some growth back on - usually by december. I dont fertilize or spray my other plots. I usually bush hog them once in July and then once again prior to planting - usually late summer, early fall. My typical method of planting really doesnt take anymore time or effort than tnm. I plant an acre in 20 min with the woods seeder.

I basically consider the wheat for me to hunt over, and the clover to provide a high protein food source for the deer the rest of the year. I have been planting food plots for forty years - and this is what works best for me on my property. But, I still want to get consistent with this tnm method - but it just isnt happening - yet.

pic below is typical plot using the woods seeder to plant wheat into existing durana - no fertilizer. This is a recent picture. A picture in the fall would show much more wheat than clover and would be four inches high.

 

[Catscratch]

Swampcat, your plots look beautiful!

TnM works well for me but I am very picky about timing and thatch. I've found that I'm also picky about what I'm planting in relation to timing. What this means is I don't even try to plant something that requires a July seeding as I don't get reliable rain in July, so that would leave me very frustrated.

What you are doing works great, not sure you need to change. If you do want to keep after the TnM figure out what your limiting factor is and address a workaround. I'm lucky that it works so well for me but I would look at other methods in a second if it didn't.

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[SwampCat]

Would you tnm into this? Mostly wheat. I would probably plant tecomate lablab plus - it is mostly ebony pea - which is between milo and soybean in size, some milo, and sunflower

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I wish I had that to plant into. I may have to do full tillage with my diversity planting this year. I over seeded it with rye in the fall but it just isnt there this spring to plant into.

 

[Catscratch]

Would you tnm into this? Mostly wheat. I would probably plant tecomate lablab plus - it is mostly ebony pea - which is between milo and soybean in size, some milo, and sunflower
View attachment 29513

In a heartbeat! That's a great looking stand for TnM. Spray it with gly, wait until there was a couple of chances for rain in a weeks time, then spread seed and knock the thatch down. I wouldn't even necessarily have to mow the thatch, when it's that tall I've had success letting if fall on it's own. I TnM beans, milo, pumpkins, etc... not afraid of large seed.

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[SD51555]

When I say timing, I'm not talking about rain.

There's a window when you can mow-kill/mow-suppress or outrun other things. The timing isn't super critical because those windows can be weeks. Knowing when that window is for each plant, is important. Keeping your C:N ratio in balance is important. I think you could get away with either alternating between high and low, or just staying balanced and be fine. But if you go high carbon after high carbon, that's when you leave opportunity for other things to balance for you.

What are you mowing with?

 

[SwampCat]

When I say timing, I'm not talking about rain.

There's a window when you can mow-kill/mow-suppress or outrun other things. The timing isn't super critical because those windows can be weeks. Knowing when that window is for each plant, is important. Keeping your C:N ratio in balance is important. I think you could get away with either alternating between high and low, or just staying balanced and be fine. But if you go high carbon after high carbon, that's when you leave opportunity for other things to balance for you.

What are you mowing with?

a bush hog - i have a 7 ft frontier for my 65 hp tractor and. 5 ft for my 30 hp tractor. The smaller rig cuts closer to the ground

 

[SD51555]

a bush hog - i have a 7 ft frontier for my 65 hp tractor and. 5 ft for my 30 hp tractor. The smaller rig cuts closer to the ground

Getting seed evenly covered in duff can be tricky. Your plots look darn nice. Your deer ever eat your wheat heads?

 

[Catscratch]

a bush hog - i have a 7 ft frontier for my 65 hp tractor and. 5 ft for my 30 hp tractor. The smaller rig cuts closer to the ground

Getting seed evenly covered in duff can be tricky. Your plots look darn nice. Your deer ever eat your wheat heads?

Deer eat wheat heads?!? Mid summer protein source... 15-18%... Energy content equal to corn... Seems like a no brainer to me. (Kind of an inside joke, sd knows how I feel about wheat).

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[SwampCat]

Deer eat wheat heads?!? Mid summer protein source... 15-18%... Energy content equal to corn... Seems like a no brainer to me. (Kind of an inside joke, sd knows how I feel about wheat).

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Hogs eat wheat heads too. Gone two weeks after they get ripe

 

[Catscratch]

Deer eat wheat heads?!? Mid summer protein source... 15-18%... Energy content equal to corn... Seems like a no brainer to me. (Kind of an inside joke, sd knows how I feel about wheat).

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Hogs eat weed heads too. Gone two weeks after they get ripe

I forgot you had hogs. Such a blessing to not have them yet.

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[S.T.Fanatic]

Getting seed evenly covered in duff can be tricky. Your plots look darn nice. Your deer ever eat your wheat heads?

The reason i'm trying to move towards crimping.

 

[SwampCat]

My deer will eat the wheat heads, if the hogs don't get them first - which usually happens.

 

[TreeDaddy]

The reason i'm trying to move towards crimping.

Im hoping Santa brings me one

bill

 

[Crimson n' Camo]

Swampcat...…..I've been thinking about your situation and I think the best advice I might be able to give would be for you to stop worrying about trying to implement the "method" of TnM and instead focus more on just insuring that you're implementing good soil health management practices. There's a saying I've used numerous times on these threads before that says something like "As to the methods their are a million and then some....but principles are few....He who understands the principles can create his own method." Don't worry so much about making TnM work and instead use the principles and create whatever works for you.

 

[TreeDaddy]

......And dont forget

........disc harrows make great artificial reef for your pond.....

bill

 

[SwampCat]

Swampcat...…..I've been thinking about your situation and I think the best advice I might be able to give would be for you to stop worrying about trying to implement the "method" of TnM and instead focus more on just insuring that you're implementing good soil health management practices. There's a saying I've used numerous times on these threads before that says something like "As to the methods their are a million and then some....but principles are few....He who understands the principles can create his own method." Don't worry so much about making TnM work and instead use the principles and create whatever works for you.

It is the principle of the thing. I will keep planting most of my food plots like I am with a woods seeder. Very little disturbance of the soil or organic matter. It is working great, returning organic matter to the soil, not turning the soil under, inexpensive, and quick. However, I have a degree in Wildlife Management and worked for the Feds in the Narural Resources for 34 years - this is something I want to accomplish. The more successful experiences you have under your belt, the more diverse your management practices can be. One of my two tnm plots was a great success this year - where it has not been for the last two years. I suspect it was a result of timing with a rain event. I will continue to pursue consistency with tnm and I will continue to use convention tillage with a disk and turning the soil - and methods in between - where I think it will work best. That is all part of the fun of it.