I thought you might enjoy this article........

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/10/scienc...-soil.html?_r=1

Great article. Big difference between no-till farming and your throw & mow methods. I've been nearly 100% no-till farming more than 6 years. Several hundred acres. There's a bit more to farming than throwing out seeds and then bush hogging

Really?…..Is there really a “big difference?”…..No-till is about the philosophy of soil health and that’s still the exact same. Just because I don’t use a drill in order to sprout a seed…how does that make it WAYYY different? Do you know that more acres of cover crops are planted from an airplane than with a drill? I’m still producing large amounts of biomass which I’m recycling back to the soil to increase OM% as well as increasing microbial life, covering the soil with residue, improving soil structure, etc,etc,,etc….I could go on with a whole list of how it’s the same….I may have tailored my approach more to that of a deer manager with minimal equipment and not that of a farmer with a big fancy drill…… but its still the same no-till philosophy. I don’t have to do it the exact same way as a farmer anyways because we have different end goals. No-till is not about the equipment……its about the understanding of how your soil functions. Here watch this video and see if they don’t repeat those same words in the first 30 seconds. This is a great video……

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWXCLVCJWTU

Thats an interesting article to come from the NY Times given that most no-till farming necessitates the use of "evil" GMO crops and the use of "deadly toxic herbicides"...

CNC...... You're the schit! You're by far the best throw and mower Ive ever seen. Youve opened my eyes to make me realize us farmers don't know a thing. Shucks I bet you can grow 400 bpa corn just scattering your little seeds here and there. Thanks again for the info. I think I'll suggest one of my 4000 acre growers he's been doing it all wrong and see how far that gets me.

^^^^^^^

Great point. No till and GMO/ herbicides go hand in hand. I have no problem with that, just reality.

257 and CNC, I'm not sure why y'all are at odds. Don't most big time farmers no till now anyway? All the ones around me do.

No Remington it's about 50/50 I work with both.

I disagree. I'm sure that there have been plenty of herbicide used with no-till farming but it is not a "must have" for us as food plotters. I've not used any in over a year now. Timing and the use of smother crops like cereal rye or buckwheat are very good alternatives to the use of herbicide.

No way you can scatter beans or corn in a field, mow it and expect to grow a profitable crop. That's just silly. Seed placement, depth, weed management, residue management, seed to soil contact. You methods will not produce yield. If you are just out to play and have fun I'm sure can get something to grow but is NOT farming. Not close

Use of smother crops will not manage weeds. You are just plain wrong friend

Sounds like CNC may be a Prius driving green peace organic nut to me

Sounds like he means well but has never farmed for a living.

True dat

I’ve never advocated for farmer’s to adopt the “throw and mow’ method. Anyone farming for a living using a no-till method would certainly invest in a drill. This is not Alfarmer.com though and we are not trying to grow fields of monocultures for profit. We are deer managers trying to attract a goat to an opening in the woods without breaking the bank to do it. I think you guys have trouble separating your farming goals from that of your food plot goals…..

I treat my food plots just like I do the ag fields. Soil test, adjust ph, plant, fertilize, & control weeds.

I just don't believe in halfassing things. Whether no till or conventional but I know "throw and mow" is halfassing

Yeah its halfassing alright ……Half the time, half the fert, half the lime, half the labor…….

From the above article……..

“Degraded soil requires heavy applications of synthetic fertilizer to produce high yields. And because its structure has broken down, the soil washes away easily in heavy rain, taking nitrogen and other pollutants with it into rivers and streams.”

“He no longer needs to use nitrogen fertilizer or fungicide, he said, and he produces yields that are above the county average with less labor and lower costs. “Nature can heal if we give her the chance,” Mr. Brown said.”

Any farmer who shoots for county average is one I don't do business with. We strive be way above "average".