Thanks for the reply, and maybe Yoder will chime in. I don't have high expectations and realize its going to take work and time to get a good plot. I'm going to take soil samples as soon as I move. I'm really looking forward to this, getting back to my country roots and out of the darn city. I have absolutely nothing and will have to buy equipment but with these methods you don't need as much equipment, which is great.
Thank Bill for pointing me to your post. It really depends on your specific soils. I'm not a fan of deep or regular tillage, but it has its place. I've been working on my Virginia Clay for 10 years now and I'm still not completely no-till. I'd say that min-till is still working best for me. Complete no-till is still my goal. First, lets start with compression. Clay can get compressed so badly that nothing will grow. I have reclaimed old logging decks from my pine farm. They would not even grow weeds when I started. The top soil, thin to start with for my soils was completely removed. Dozers and other heavy equipment had compressed the decks to the point nothing would grow. Here is how I reclaimed them:
1) I used a single shank sub-soiler on my DK45 to relieve the compression. This is a much better tool than a bottom plow. It does not turn the soil, it just cuts through it.
2) Once the compression was relieved I started to plant soil building crops. The good news is that these are great deer foods as well. If I start the reclamation in the spring, I start with buckwheat. I use a tiller on my tractor but set it very high. I don't want to get below 1" at most. Clay with low OM tends to crust. Water has a hard time penetrating the crust and so do plants. With my soils, buckwheat doesn't surface broadcast well, so after broadcasting it, I would turn the PTO off and drag the tiller over the field. The tines would "walk" over the soil making dimples and the rear door would drag a little dirt over the seed. It doesn't need much. Planting before a rain is always a bonus. Buckwheat is a 60 to 90 day crop. Deer use it but generally don't abuse it unless they have little else. It is very competitive. In my area in central VA, the last have of June is a good time to plant it. It will germinate at soil temps (taken between 0800 and 0900, not air temp) as low as 45 degrees but the optimal temp is 80 degrees. It germinates very quickly if you get rain and will outcompete most weeds. It is a 60 to 90 day crop. I have tried double cropping it in my area, but the first crop is always stunted compared to the second and I've found better ways to accomplish the same thing which you will see in #3 and #4
3) After the buckwheat (or if you start in the fall), I plant a Winter Rye (not ryegrass) based mix. I typically add about 10 lbs/ac crimson clover as well as 2-3lbs/ac Groundhog radish. And yes, you can plant GHR in August as long as you get rain. I've even planted it in September for deer, but if you want large tubers, planting in the middle of August works well in my area.
4) In the following spring, the WR and Crimson will come back. Deer won't use the WR much but the crimson acts as a reseeding annual in our area and deer will use it heavily in the spring. This eliminates the need to till twice to double crop buckwheat.
5) In the middle of June of the next year, I repeat the process starting with step 2. If the deck I start with is real bad, I'll repeat this for at least 2 full growing systems and move to step #6 in the third fall. If it is not that bad, I'll move to step #6 in the 2nd fall.
6) At this point, the field should support perennial clover. I like Durana for our general area and further south. It is slow to establish but once established it is drought resistant and very persistent compared to Ladino an even other improved clovers. So in this step, I plant a Winter Rye based mix again but add 10 lbs/ac Durana in place of the crimson clover.
7) This step is important to establishing the Durana. In the following spring, each time the Winter Rye hits about a foot or so, mow it back to 6". This releases the Durana slowly but keeps the WR alive and lets it die naturally. Don't use a grass selective herbicide to kill it. The WR will help keep weeds at bay while the Durana establishes itself. In subsequent years, I don't bother mowing the durana until right before the season. The field will look like weeds during the summer, but mowing them right before the cool evenings set in come late September is enough to favor the Durana. It bounces back strong in the fall. You can mow it and use herbicides to make it look pretty if you want, but I haven't found this to benefit deer and just takes time and costs money.
8) From there I manage this as a perennial clover field. The durana will last well over 5 years. When the durana is done, the field should support just about anything. Be sure to follow the clover with an N seeking crop for the first rotation.
I'm slowly building OM in most of my fields. I use a small 4' kasco no-till versa-drill to drill corn and beans for summer in my feeding fields but I still need to run my tiller set very high over them to break up crusting before I drill.
Hope this helps,
Jack
