I plan to spray mine this weekend to get ready for summer planting.

Here’s one more thing to consider I thought about after my last post about choosing fert over seed. I completely believe in cover crops and replacing our nutrient needs through using the right plant species…..clover adding nitrogen as an example…..radishes loosening the soil, etc…….BUT...if you can’t produce a vibrant crop of that plant…..you don’t receive the benefits. So yes, things like beans (legumes) will add nitrogen back to the cycle……..but not unless you grow a healthy crop of ‘em. The ones that got wiped out before they got knee high didn’t do anything for you.

1) Scale…..2) Current soil fertility…….

Most folks are dealing with soil that’s been heavily tilled for years and simply does not have the fertility to grow a crop without using synthetic soil amendments in the beginning years. Most of us who are dealing with small acreage plots just simply do not have the scale needed to be able to grow many summer cover crops either. No matter how fertile we get, if we’re only ever planting an acre or a ½ acre, etc…..we’ll always be limited by scale.

However, what we have come to call “weeds” are just Mother Nature’s cover crops. Many of them are specifically suited for the job of building soil and providing food/shelter for wildlife. When you take into consideration all the variables that I’ve been talking about like scale, trying to repair poor soil, trying to keep up with browsing pressure, etc…..IMO your best option in the summer for many of us is to simply add the lime and fertilizer needed to balance the soil in spring or early summer and then let it grow. Add clovers into your fall mix and just let them do their thing. Grow off a really nice crop of diverse summer vegetation that's 5-6 ft tall by the end of summer and have it ready to plant your fall mix into…..all the while building rich and more fertile soil. Soil that grows plants with higher Brix. This is just my opinion.

So mid June I'm having 3 new food plots added and one existing plot made larger. The guy is using a combination of Dozer and forestry mulcher to put them in. He is going to get soil samples, lime and fertilizer as recommended by sample. He's going to plant mostly millet because it's cheap and easy to grow just to get something growing. My first real planting will be this fall. What should I plant? Clover, Rye Grain? My soil is not great and full of chert which is great for roads, but sucks for plots. I want to get some biomass on it.

Cereal rye and crimson clover would be a great choice. I usually plant around 100 lbs/ac of cereal rye and 10-12 lbs/ac of clover but you could go a little heavier the first time if you need to due to poor soil conditions.

Another 7-8 days gone by. Not a whole lot of change other than the cereal rye is just continuing to dry out and get beat down more. Really happy with the hay crop it ended up making.

The goal is to produce and recycle one big crop of biomass like this after another. That’s how dark, rich soil is created. The microorganisms in the soil will incorporate it for you. This is food that fuels the soil food web. We want vibrant microorganism activity in our soil. They mineralize our soil nutrients and make them available to the plants. You want the soil churning with life. Come and get it worms!!

You got any pics you could post?

I just planted this years crop. I don't think i have any pictures from previous buckwheat crops. You wanting pictures of the dragged over rye, or of buckwheat? I have some of the rye pics. Pm me your email, or phone number and i can text ot email you some, i don't use photobucket.

Sprayed Saturday and will hopefully be planting this weekend if i get some rain.

Take some pics!!!!

I have a few questions regarding a field that I planted throw N mow last November. It's 6 acres, it was grown up in pines that were almost too big to bush hog. I cut it, broadcast cereal rye and hairy vetch, then I cut it again to clean up the rest of the pines. It made a great looking stand this spring and the vetch is especially thick. I would like to utilize the large amount of seed that it is producing to reseed for this fall. I need to turn out my cattle on it for short duration grazing, so naturally I would like for them to do the seeding work. Question 1- will vetch and rye reseed in this way? Question 2- what would be the optimal timing to turn the cows out onto it? Question 3- Can I graze more than once this summer without damaging the reseeding operation? My rye looks very similar to the most recent picture that CNC posted, and the vetch has purple flowers all throughout. Thank you.

That’s awesome!....Cows are a great tool to have at your disposal. They can be used as a tool to set back succession and turn your biomass into manure.

I’d give it a little more time before turning the cattle loose on it and allow the hairy vetch seed to mature first. Then you should be good to go. Leave the cattle in there long enough to remove the old canopy and stimulate new growth but not so long that they take the field down to a nub. When “mob grazing” a green field… from my understanding you should allow the cows to eat 1/3….stomp down 1/3….and leave 1/3….something of that nature.

The hairy vetch will probably reseed itself well but I think you’ll likely have to add more rye this fall. It’ll come back some but there’s so much that eats that grain seed that much of it will be consumed. You may very well be able to turn the cows back loose on it later this summer enough for them to just set things back to a tender vegetative state before things begin to harden off. I’d play it by ear.

The yuchi seems to be pretty much left alone until about this time of the year. Look at how the deer are beating down the rye to get to the clover now. The tops are being eaten out of every stalk. No need to be in a rush to transition crops yet. We can still keep running for a while longer off of last fall’s planting if we put things like yuchi into our mix……….

Here’s a little patch of hairy vetch like Firehunt was talking about with the purple flowers. It’s supposed to be a good source of N. If you’re gonna have it reseed itself then you’ve got to be careful about when you choose to mow.... if that’s what you choose to do. I mowed mine way too early the year after I sewed it and terminated much of it at the wrong time. Some of it came back and reseeded but I really goofed that year and messed up my seed crop. I was eager to transition to a summer experiment and did so at the cost of my vetch reseeding. There’s still some here and there around the field. I need to add it to my fall mix again this year though.

I'm so ready for my fields to go in mid june so I can start experimenting.

It’s called “soil erosion” and it’s not just something that happened way back when………….


"The timing of dry weather with strong winds and just recently planted fields with a top layer of fine, ground-up earth," he said. "It all set the stage for a day like today."


https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/...l-car-accidents

Sprayed last sat and just got through seeding I/C peas, stonewall soybeans and brown top millet. Got one field drug down pretty good but it started pouring before i could get the other done. As soon as it quits raining ill get the other two drug and hopefully a lot more rain the next few days.

If you got rain like I did you shouldn't have an issue with moisture. That kind of rain is what is so bad for a freshly plowed field. It damn near washed part of my driveway out.

The heavy rain last night put the cereal rye hay crop down for the count I believe. You can easily see our 4ft baskets again for reference. Those are actually newly planted Nuttal oaks. Gonna spread some P&K soon………..



The deer are continuing to absolutely hammer the patches of yuchi at a time when new antlers are emerging. Spring and early summer are important times for recovering bucks.



More patches of durana popping through the hay as well……….

Yea I already have soybeans splitting and tails coming out. I should have a good stand if we get a couple more rains like they are saying.