A Soil Test

[Crimson n' Camo]

Y’all know I can’t help but to experiment with something. The itch got to be too much. With the summer vegetation beginning to harden off, I decided to break the disk out for the first time in 5 years and try to simulate a mob grazing. I took a lot of the angle out of the disks compared to how I used to have them set. I think I still need to take more bite out of it. It cut a little more than I wanted in a few places. I’m not trying to plow dirt but rather just trample down the vegetation while slightly stimulating the soil surface….hopefully promoting some new tender growth. If you’re just starting to try to turn around really poor soil then this is something I probably wouldn’t worry about trying until you start really growing some heavy crops of biomass and have a good layer of rich topsoil built up.

I left this strip across the center of the field so that the dog fennel will create a screen to give the back of the field more security. I’ve got it divided into two (1 acre) fields now.

 

[Lewi B]

I like your disk. What brand?

 

[Crimson n' Camo]

I like your disk. What brand?

Thanks!

 

[Crimson n' Camo]

Here's a little more of a zoomed out pic where you can see my dog fennel screen that's growing. I still have to "mob graze" the back right corner of the field. Just waiting on it to get shady first. It just turned HOT here. That's my only fear with trying this experiment. We've been wet so far and it looks like more is still coming but we're hitting temps now in the mid 90's. I think if we get rain though I'll be fine. The brown you see in the pic is not dirt...that's mostly cereal rye that got semi-fluffed up. There were still areas where it was suppressing any new growth due to putting down the rye too thick back in the spring when I mowed. I may have been better to have taken this "mob grazing" type approach to the rye crop as well.

 

[Crimson n' Camo]

There was a lot of life in the field as I rode through it. That’s part of holistic management. They’re like links in a chain. This was one of a couple snakes I saw. I’ve always just called them green snakes. The other one was a eastern hognose…..aka puffadder…..……I wasn’t able to get a pic of him. I was reading that they mostly feed on toad frogs. I bet this little guy probably feeds on crickets and such. Links in a chain....balance.....

 

[rlb165]

Administrators: Crimson n' Camo's account has been hacked!!!!

Seriously, I've noticed more life in my
throw n' mow plots as well, especially bees and lightning bugs.

 

[cutman]

I see more animal life in my no till plots as well. I see countless rats and typically 1 black snake per acre. I usually have hawks following me while I'm on the tractor.

 

[John Barnes]

I had a bald eagle circling my plot earlier this week. I've got lots of chipmunks out that way for them to hunt. And our cat brought a bunny head to the door the other day, presumably to feed to her young kittens. I'd guess it came from the plot area as the rabbits don't venture too close to the house.

 

[Crimson n' Camo]

Doing a little more simulated mob grazing experiments. I decided to go ahead and do the same thing on the lanes in my tree orchards. Some of it was getting pretty dang thick anyways and some of the smaller trees needed help. That’s a Chinese chestnut in the center and a Nuttal oak in the back right….and a sawtooth oak in the very back. There’s also some chinkapin oaks and sequin chestnuts in there. This is one the best areas on my property for good soil moisture. I think I may just “mob graze” all of it and plant it this fall. It’s a lot larger area than you can see in this photo. It’s just so thick and grown up that I can only get short range pics.

 

[Bowman]

You are on to something with simulated mob grazing.

 

[Crimson n' Camo]

I think so too. I just don’t want to confuse anyone though and folks think that means to get the disk back out and start breaking dirt. I played around with the angle on my disks yesterday until I found a sweet spot where it was cutting the vegetation but not really tilling the soil. In most places it just cut slits into the top couple inches of dirt, stimulating the seed bank. I think my timing is off a little though. I need to back everything up a little to where I’m stimulating my late summer growth around late June maybe. It gets hot and dry here in July and August.

This is the future home of a food plot when I get all the trash trees out of this bottom. I have WAY more soil moisture to deal with in the bottom versus up on the hill just 100 yards away. This is the type of biomass I really want to be recycling. I could improve the soil on top of that sandy hill for a decade and still not be able to produce a plot like what this moist bottom would grow. I have more clay present in this bottom as well.

 

[Rempump870]

Last year I added a trailer jack to my disk. I added 2 wheels to the jack to help it from sinking/dragging in the dirt. I can raise and lower the jack depending on how far down I want the blades to go. I can barley scratch the surface or let the disc go down 2-3 inches. I found this is a good way to 'rough' up the surface without turning the dirt over. Might be worth a try for folks trying to do what you are doing with out adjustable discs.

 

[Crimson n' Camo]

Just posting a few more pics of some simulated mob grazing I’m doing in this bottom. Some serious biomass being put down……..

 

[cutman]

Why are you referring to it as "mob grazing?" I don't see how it simulates what dgallow talks about with his cattle. Cattle eat, trample, poop. A disk scratches the surface of the soil. What am I missing?

 

[Crimson n' Camo]

It’s not exactly the same, I’ll concede to that…..BUT…..it’s still accomplishing some similar goals. For one it’s setting back succession on plants that have started going to seed and are no longer really palatable to the deer. It takes all of that old vegetation and tramples it into the ground like the cows would do. They would typically eat the tops out of the plants but I’m just trampling the whole plant. It also stimulates the soil surface similar to the hoofing action of the cows….which should promote new seedling growth as well as new growth that sprouts back from the existing root structure of the plants that have been trampled. It’s not putting out manure but we could probably broadcast some litter or fert afterwards and simulate that aspect as well. There’s a certain stimulation to the plant that comes through the cow tugging on it as it eats that I cannot simulate but that’s ok…..it’s not exactly mob grazing….. its just trying to replicate the principles.....mainly setting back succession and promoting new growth at a time when most everything else has hardened off.

 

[lakngolf]

So the only thing missing is the BS?

 

[Crimson n' Camo]

So the only thing missing is the BS?

......Yep, pretty much...lol!

It would probably be a good idea to broadcast a low rate of N over the top of things when you finish.

 

[Crimson n' Camo]

Something I don’t think I’ve mentioned is that I’m only making one pass to accomplish this. Even with a throw n’ mow approach, I usually have to make two passes at least when mowing heavy biomass. It’s not nearly as much debris getting stirred into the air either which makes it a little more enjoyable from the perspective of the tractor operator. I really think that this method is gonna alleviate the issues I’m running across with the heavy crops of biomass. That heavy crop of rye I mowed down back in the spring was smothering out a lot of surface area across the field. If I had done a simulated mob grazing then it would have came in much thicker. This next year I'll hopefully have a nice stand of yuchi clover growing in the spring so I may not do anything at all until around mid to late June...

 

[John Barnes]

Grant woods now talks about his Goliath crimper/roller in every food plot segment he does. Says it simulates the affects of a grazing herd of bison. That and the Genesis no-till drill will be a couple of first purchases after winning the lottery.

 

[Crimson n' Camo]

Grant woods now talks about his Goliath crimper/roller in every food plot segment he does. Says it simulates the affects of a grazing herd of bison. That and the Genesis no-till drill will be a couple of first purchases after winning the lottery.

Yep, I’ve been watching those as well. He’s using a little different application of the same general techniques. He’s NOT wanting to stimulate the seed bank though since he’s drilling in crops. There’s lots of different options and ideas that will put us on a path to better soil health.