No-till drills

[GivingBack]

Gotcha,

That is pretty much where I am as well, except that I just got my no-till drill. As I mentioned, I can't get on board with everything that any of the experts say, but I do want to increase the amount and quality of the forage for deer. I do believe I will land somewhere in the middle of both natural forage and planted forage.

 

[yoderjac]

Gotcha,

That is pretty much where I am as well, except that I just got my no-till drill. As I mentioned, I can't get on board with everything that any of the experts say, but I do want to increase the amount and quality of the forage for deer. I do believe I will land somewhere in the middle of both natural forage and planted forage.

Yep. I like using habitat management techniques that maximize the amount of quality native forage. It is much less expensive than planted forage and it doesn't matter if a deer is eating a quality native forage or quality planted forage from a herd health perspective. I want to target my food plots to cover time periods when nature is stingy. I think we need both, but food plots are supplemental.

 

[Elkaddict]

After waiting 18 months, we finally had a GP 3PT no till drill delivered. We opted for the extra small seed box. It took some trial and error to find the sweet spot for the right amount of depth and compaction. What works well for our dry plots tends to tear things up a bit in plots with more moisture.
I rationalized the purchase based on the time it would save, and hopefully lessen the area of solid disturbance so as to decrease the scourge of quick weed.
It did a great job of drilling brassicas into crimped buckwheat. It’s also done a good job of drilling brassicas into overgrazed beans. Once I got the adjustments set right, it’s also been great at planting rye into existing clover or newly killed plots (we used the small seed box to simultaneously plant the clover). While the grain has germinated as expected, it’s been harder to track the germination of the clover. It’s been so dry that the clover germination may be at risk.
The real test will be next spring’s planting of beans.
As I’ve contemplated success to date, there’s no question about significant time being saved. I’m still trying to figure out the best way to get fertilizer into the root system. Given our dry conditions this year, I’m not sure the rains have done what they normally would. It is my hope that in time, fewer soil amendments will be required.
One challenge I’m still trying to figure out is how minimize clover seed coating from gumming up the small seed mechanism. It tends to build up and has even bridged through the tubes. I’d welcome any thoughts on cleaning this up and minimizing the problem in the future.

 

[yoderjac]

After waiting 18 months, we finally had a GP 3PT no till drill delivered. We opted for the extra small seed box. It took some trial and error to find the sweet spot for the right amount of depth and compaction. What works well for our dry plots tends to tear things up a bit in plots with more moisture.
I rationalized the purchase based on the time it would save, and hopefully lessen the area of solid disturbance so as to decrease the scourge of quick weed.
It did a great job of drilling brassicas into crimped buckwheat. It’s also done a good job of drilling brassicas into overgrazed beans. Once I got the adjustments set right, it’s also been great at planting rye into existing clover or newly killed plots (we used the small seed box to simultaneously plant the clover). While the grain has germinated as expected, it’s been harder to track the germination of the clover. It’s been so dry that the clover germination may be at risk.
The real test will be next spring’s planting of beans.
As I’ve contemplated success to date, there’s no question about significant time being saved. I’m still trying to figure out the best way to get fertilizer into the root system. Given our dry conditions this year, I’m not sure the rains have done what they normally would. It is my hope that in time, fewer soil amendments will be required.
One challenge I’m still trying to figure out is how minimize clover seed coating from gumming up the small seed mechanism. It tends to build up and has even bridged through the tubes. I’d welcome any thoughts on cleaning this up and minimizing the problem in the future.

I can't speak to the GP or small seed box, but I can speak to fertilizer. Since I went to no-till/min-till, I have not used any fertilizer. I'm on poor clay soils. Keep in mind that soil tests are designed for farmers who are trying to maximize yield. Yield is not an important factor for deer food plots at all. For a farmer, anything he didn't plant is a "weed". Many of those plants are great deer food. By avoiding monocultures and choosing a smart mix of complementary crops and increasing my tolerance for "weeds", I've eliminated commercial fertilizer all together. I went from planting monocultures of RR beans or mixing RR beans with RR corn to planting a mix of buckwheat and sunn hemp in the spring. The sunn hemp fixes N like beans and the buckwheat scavenges nutrients. In the fall I mix WR with CC and brassica. Recently I've started actually managing native weeds for deer reducing my food plots.

I have a small Kasco no-till drill but rarely use it any more. Most of the crops I'm planting surface broadcast well, especially when cultipacked. When I stopped the traditional tillage, I found this method even faster than the no-till drill. There are still situations where the drill is the best tool for me. For example, if I have an old weedy clover field, come fall when the cool weather favors the clover and we get fall rain in the forecast, I can bushhog the field flat to the ground or spray it with 1qt gly to suppress the clover. I then use the drill to add brassica or WR. They benefit from all the N the clover banked over the years. They get just above the clover before it bounces back from the roots and fills in.

I no longer judge the quality of my soils or plots based on soil tests. I just them based on deer use. I've seen no change in deer use overall since I stopped fertilizing. I've actually seen an increase in daytime use since I became more weed tolerant. I think the variation in structure makes deer feel more secure. A deer stands out like a sore thumb foraging on a magazine cover clover plot. They blend in much more in a mixed field of clover and weeds.

Best of luck with the GP and don't sweat the fertilizer.