Good stuff, CNC. Fields look great! This week will be the test for fields all across the state.

i planted sun hemp and buckwheat around 10 days ago on 3 fields for a total of around 4 acres. All i did was spread the seed, bush hog the field, luckily got rain immediately after doing that. Got up the next morning and sprayed the fields.

Checked on them today and they are doing good. 2 of the fields we have been doing throw n mow on for a couple of years now and they looked great. One of the fields this is the first time we have tried this on, it looks great in some areas and bare in some. I would say it is looking good on 70% of the field.

Overall i am very pleased. Saved us a ton of time doing it this way and with this hot dry weather it is saving us having the "mulch" layer covering everything and protecting the seed. Everything is already 2-4" tall and looking good.

I think we might need to take a step back and reexamine our stance on “weeds” fellas. Some folks would describe this plant as one of the very worst weeds in our fields……I don’t think the deer agree. Is it so horrible that you need to haul your tractor down to the hunting club and spray $100 bottle of herbicide so that the field will look pretty again? How much different is this plant from sunn hemp? One we praise the other we scorn....Why?

Nothing wrong with weeds, as long as they offer the same nutrients to the deer as what folks are planting. Plants being eaten don't always mean that it's good for the deer.

Does this weed in question put as much nutrients back into the soil as sunn hemp?

Here’s a list of some of the more common field weeds and their nutritive value…..I don’t see marestail on this one but some of the other "weeds" I’ve posted pictures of the deer browsing that I do see on there include Virginia pepperweed, cutleaf evening primrose and ragweed. The pepperweed is 32% crude protein…..the primrose is 20%….ragweed is 21-26%…White clover as an example is listed as 25%….

https://pubs.ext.vt.edu/418/418-150/418-150.html


Here’s something on marestail specifically…..Folks can say what they want but I’m watching it being pretty heavily browsed in my test field. Its not just a matter of a plant or two either. I would say around 40-50% of all the marestail plants in the field show browsing pressure already.

http://www.eattheweeds.com/conyza-canadensis-herb-fire-food-2/

“Per 100g of dry weight the leaves have a small amount of protein and fat, more fiber, good amount of carbohydrates, 8.2 grams ash, 1010 mg of calcium, 280 mg phosphorus, and 2610 mg potassium.”

Are the weeds still producing protein in the winter or just taking up space?

These are just summer weeds....most of them I guess would be considered reseeding annuals. All of it will terminate at the end of summer. I'll broadcast cereal grains and clovers around the first of October and the summer biomass will be turned into thatch.

Also, those weeds aren't adding back to the soil like the sunn hemp is.

Why do you say that? What is so different? Do these plants function in a completely different manner than the ones we plant?

It could be partridge pea that's growing wild or an Austrian winter pea that we plant….both plants are legumes that serve the same general function in the plant ecosystem. Same if we’re talking about broadleafs or grasses….It could be millet…milo…crabgrass or Bermuda grass but all of those plants fill the niche of the “grass” specie in the plant ecosystem and bring those certain properties to the table. One of the big advantages for why people grow sunn hemp is for its ability to produce large amounts of woody biomass. That’s one of the major benefits your getting…high C:N ratio biomass production. IF deer decimate the field and it doesn't produce that biomass then those advantages are lost. You can read all you want to about the advantages of buckwheat and incorporating its biomass back into the soil but the reality in plots like mine ends of being a field of little browsed off stalks.... not a field of biomass. This is where these other plants we consider “weeds” have the advantage. They are going to actually out compete these other plants like sunn hemp and buckwheat from a soil health perspective because they can actually withstand the browsing pressure and still produce that massive crop of biomass. These plants are still taking up nutrients from the soil and recycling them into OM as well.

Well so why then does grant woods and his group not just tell everyone to let their summer annuals suffice for summer plots. By those numbers on protein why don't we have booners all over then if weeds provide that much high quality protein? Just asking