Brassica size/planting method

Putting in about 11 acres of brassica tomorrow and curious if people see a size difference in the bulbs/plants between when they break up the soil with a disk//tiller, and just laying it on the surface of a sprayed field that has plenty of seed to soil contact?

11 acres of brassica.....that's lot of brassica. Just a thought being you are northern state. Might benefit from putting some of that into winter rye. 11 acres is a lot of tonnage and probably lot will be wasted, but with some winter rye your deer will thank you come spring when that have few acres of winter rye popping up in march/april before anything else is green.

I haven't seen much difference in bulb size based on two methods you mention (assuming using cultipacker on the seed to soil contact). However, weather seems to be biggest factor for me....starting to creep up on end planting date for brassicas to get good bulb development for your zone, as forecast looking little dry here at least for 10 days. Would've been ideal to have week ago as most mid-west got some good rain over weekend.

Thanks for the reply. It's in lower OH. 1600 acres. I've got about 9 acres of rye and clover going in as well. The deer will mop it all up.

I'll hit it with a culdipacker as well and not flip if there isn't a difference.

Thank you. It will save me some time skipping that step

For the 5 years, I’ve planted 4-6 acres of brassicas on packed soil (and the packed again after broadcasting). I’ve also separately broadcast brassicas on field edges and thin spots in clover and corn. My experience is cultipacked planted brassicas germinated considerably quicker and grew larger (bulbs and forage). I’ve also observed that that germination rates are much higher. Hence on unprepared soil, I probably have to broadcast 2-3 times the seed to get the same production.

My property is just over 200 acres in rather unproductive mountains. Come the fall, it’s not uncommon to see 25-30 deer in the plots every evening. The deer completely polish off the forage by January or early February. They then get serious about the stalks and bulbs. If I could do it productively, I’d double the brassicas. On balance they are now a stronger draw than my corn/bean mix (beans are always gone by late fall).

If RR brassicas were a thing, that would be the backbone of my plots. For what it’s worth, I always have several acres of rye planted in the fall to keep the deer fed in March as the snow melt permits access. Around here, late February and March are the toughest months for starvation.