Summer cover crop before rotation

[Baker]

Here is a summer cover crop of peas beans sunflower and sunn hemp. I'm concerned I will not be able to drill directly into it as standing so my plan is to mow it as high as the mower deck will allow as soon as it dries out. Replanting will be mid September.

With 15" rain in the last week and still raining today will probably be next week before I can get the tractor back there. This an 18 acre field.

 

[G3 Ranch]

Oh man, that's gonna be a project...I bet the deer are fat & happy.

 

[dogdoc]

yea, drilling into that would be close to impossible--if not impossible.

todd

 

[lakngolf]

You may have a very good problem there!! I think I would mow strips for planting leaving some "clusters" (dogghr will like that) of growth in the field. Sounds like the plot is large enough to create quite a bit of diversity

 

[dgallow]

Holy cow....some serious hemp....I like plots like that! Sounds like a good plan.....then mow again and lower a week or so later if you can to knock back persimmon sprouts (that is what it looks like anyway and I have them in plots too). There is some serious N fixation going on in that plot....a mix heavy on small grains will help balance the soil and lessen N leaching! Getting sufficient light to the soil surface is the issue.....peas and beans are low carbon....so should degrade quickly....a benefit for you.

What were your seedinging rates, Baker?

 

[cutman]

I'm dealing with something similar. Peas, beans, and hemp that have created an absolute jungle. I will be drilling Bakers modified Southern LC mix in sometime in October with no till drill.

Let me know how your plans works, Baker.

 

[dgallow]

I wasn't ignoring your post earlier about this....cutman....but it is hard to figure out what to do without a picture or having my feet on the ground. Post up a pic if you can....sorghum density is the main thing I look at when figuring out what to do.

 

[cutman]

Will do dgallow. Will take a pic next time I'm there. It looks like Bakers pic above but not as tall yet. Peas/beans are probably thigh high, sunn hemp is 6 ft. I can only see the deer heads when they walk through it.

 

[Baker]

You may have a very good problem there!! I think I would mow strips for planting leaving some "clusters" (dogghr will like that) of growth in the field. Sounds like the plot is large enough to create quite a bit of diversity

I know the conventional wisdom would be to leave some clusters or strips in the field and there is a lot of value to that. However I plan to replant the entire field. I'm not worried about 'cleaning the table' as this field is just a part of a mosaic of fields in the area. Close by is a 4 acre field of joint vetch and alyce clover attached to a 4 acre field of red clover and durana.

More important to me is an experiment I'm running with cover crops. That field is brick like red clay. So I have been double cropping it for the last couple of years with a multi specie summer and winter cover crop program to understand the impact on soil structure.I also added a solid dose of chicken litter last fall. Interestingly this field was 10' under water April 1. The floods receded and by April 14th it was dry enough to plant and obviously perfectly clean. Everything got a jump on weeds and field has done perfectly.

Doug, going from memory but planting rate per acre was:
50 lbs cow peas
25 lbs soy beans
15 lbs sunn hemp
5-6 lbs sunflowers. All drilled simultaneously
There was also a solid stand of crimson reseeded from previous yrs. crops

 

[cutman]

Have you mowed yet, Baker? Where are you in the fall planting process?

 

[Baker]

Have you mowed yet, Baker? Where are you in the fall planting process?

I mowed all my dual rotation fields. Interestingly even with the mowing deck as high as it could go, on one field it killed most of the sunn hemp. This was the field I posted pic of. I'm ok with that as it will give more time to start deteriorating. The peas and beans are still doing great.

My plan is to spray all the fields starting Sept. 16, then begin planting the following week.I need to spray first because I'm planting a little over 50 acres in the rotation and my concern is that if I spray after planting I may get some germination before I'm able to finish.

It's still in the 90's here and I like to wait just a bit before planting to avoid excess heat and army worms etc.

 

[cutman]

Interesting. I didn't realize that you also sprayed to terminate the summer plots. I was hoping to get away with just mowing.

 

[Baker]

Interesting. I didn't realize that you also sprayed to terminate the summer plots. I was hoping to get away with just mowing.

Do you drill or broadcast? If drilling the drill might cut enough to kill back the growing crop to allow germination. I don't think mowing would do that though never tried. My peas especially are in a vigorous growing mode now. If you have soybeans then spraying may not be necessary assuming minimal weed issues as they are going to seed now and done. I also spray to get rid of summer weeds and grasses that are in the fields.

 

[cutman]

I'm going to no till drill with a GP 706NT. After the rain we just got from Hermine I'm sure mine are growing like crazy as well. It's only 4 acres so I can spray if I need to. The rest of my fields are mostly fallow grass fields and this point so I should be able to get away with just drilling into those.

 

[dogghr]

I just saw this Baker. Wow what a jungle. Bet that was a fun mow but agree, lot of soil manipulation going on there. Should work good. Did you see much deer activity with it as you mowed? Mine sometimes avoid extremely thick masses like that but if something is in there they want to eat, they make the effort. Cool stuff.