This is what my top plot looks like. [img:center]http://[/img] [img:center]http://[/img]
This is my newest small plot and it's had heavy browsing in the bottom half as you can see. [img:center]http://[/img] [img:center]http://[/img]
This is my best plot and it's doing pretty good. [img:center]http://[/img]

[img:center]http://[/img] [img:center]http://[/img]
You can see the difference in the top field and the two fields in the bottom.

Last couple pics look really good. First couple look like my mow & throw field

I'm asking this as a serious question...not to belittle or anything like that.....But looking at the first couple of pics....What is the biggest issue you see if you were assessing the field?

Very nice Turkeyneck!!.....In your 6th picture in the bottom right corner I see a plant that you want to spot spray if you get a chance before it goes to seed. Its called "sicklepod".

There is a good bit of it in a few spot in that field.

Any ideas why the top field is doing so poorly?

You'll want to start trying to rid the seed bank of that stuff. It doesn't have much benefit to us that I know of and it spreads pretty prolifically. It'll probably be best for you to go ahead and sacrifice those patches of the field now and spray it. You'll likely still deal with it for a couple of years until you get it out of your seed bank. Don't let new ones go to seed.

The bare soil surface is what jumps out at me. This will have several negative impacts on growing conditions.

Look at the third picture down. You can see in that one area its on the verge of “gulley erosion”. There are several different classifications of erosion depending on the severity. A couple more that I recall are rill erosion and sheet erosion. If you look in the field where you see the little places that look like rows of dirt with pure sand between them...that is rill erosion. The pure sand is caused from the individual soil particles separating and then falling out of suspension as the water flows across the surface. Gulley erosion is one of the more severe forms. It’s not just the messed up little ditch in the field that is the problem. What we are more concerned about is the massive of amount of water flow across the surface of the field that had to occur to cause this type of gulley to form. The top inch of dirt across the field was likely eroded and at least partially leached of nutrients. There was large amounts of water running out of that field during these heavy rain showers we’ve been getting and with it goes a lot of the fert. This is one of the reasons why water flow is so important.

Another negative impact that’s occurring……If we have that much water flowing out of the field then its not going down into the soil. That means when the rain stops and the hot and dry conditions get cranked back up like we’re seeing now….then your soil dries out very fast because it didn’t actually absorb a lot of rain deep into the soil profile. This drying out process is also hastened by the fact that the bare soil is directly exposed to the sun. Soil temps will soar this coming week in that plot to temps near 110 degrees while the plots with a thatch roof will stay more moderated and likely not get out of the 80’s. These types of soil conditions can toast a crop of seedlings.

Do we still consider these unwanted “weeds”? Here’s the ragweed bring browsed in the field………



I think this one may be called pepper weed. Correct me on that one if I’m wrong 257. All of these have the tops nipped out as you can see on this one just above my thumb.



I don’t know what this one is called but I would have to rank it right up there with any other plant in the field (including peas) on its browsing preference. It gets hammered wherever it grows on my property. What is this????

Turkeyneck…….There’s a good chance that you’ve lost a lot of your nitrogen fertilizer to runoff in that plot. The #1 goal that I’d make for that field this summer moving forward is to pamper it along and use the grass and other weeds coming in to grow a large crop of biomass. Getting a good heavy crop of straw down over the soil surface is the first step to correcting these issues. If you were going to check on the fields every couple weeks or so… then each trip I would take a small amount of nitrogen and broadcast over the field. I’m talking about like a shoulder bag spreader worth. You will be better off in the beginning to just throw out small amounts more often.

The test field is really thriving now and producing loads of deer forage and biomass through multiple species of plants. These are seed pods that the turnips are sending out.



The deer must see them as no different than a being a pea because they seem to be getting hammered. These same plants were loaded with little peas just a couple days earlier.

Growth is kicking into high gear this week on the plants that have managed to avoid being browsed. I think a lot of it is going to make it through that initial stage where it’s the most vulnerable. Even the plants that have been browsed are putting out new growth. The weather pattern is looking at little ugly now though. The weather guessers are calling for high 90’s and dry for as far out as their crystal balls can see.

Don't want to see my corn right now. It'll hurt my feelings. But my sunflowers and sunn hemp are loving it.

Mine is all 10 - 12 ft. tall with 2 ears to the stalk.
I still can't see any difference in what I sidedressed and what I only put down at planting.

Mines waist high was growing fine til we hit the wall this week. Mine outta be ready just in time for deer season if we get a few more rains

The next week is going to be tough on a lot of fields. I hate to see it like this when the forecast has no end in sight to the intense heat and lack of rain.

I hope I'm wrong but I'm thinking this is the way its going to be until Oct-Nov.

I have 2- 5 acre fields in great shape that will be ready in about a week. It will stay on the stalk until we cut it for deer or dove. My dad left a field that would have had corn until March 15 if he hadn't bushogged it first of March.

Especially when your livelihood depends on it!

Holy chit it's hot out there today fellas.....