I plant 50 acres worth of fields. For the past 20 plus years, I've bush hogged everything before I disc it. I've been wanting to spray instead of bush hog for the past several years, but I haven't made any effort to do it. Well now I've got a good 30 foot sprayer. I'm planning to get it done this year.
My question is this....When do I spray? I'm wanting to kill everything. I would like to start breaking ground the first weekend in September (Labor Day). I thought about spraying it all on July 30, but in wondering if that's too early.

Advice is welcome.

Bush hog middle of August. Wait two weeks and Spray the new growth that is starting to come up. Start breaking the ground two weeks later. Works for me.

That's fine to start then. Plan on hitting it twice. Maybe back it up to mid July then mid August. You're ground should work up fine by sept 1.

The longer between spraying and disking the better. If you get a good kill and wait long enough, the roots in the ground rot. That REALLY mellows up the soil. The trick is to get a good kill. Teacher One's method is what I do.

The idea is to stimulate new growth. Roundup (or most my chemical for that matter) only works on green, actively growing plants. Stuff that's gotten big and dormant will not take in the herbicide.

You CAN spray after hunting season while your plots are still green and relatively short. This makes for great coverage, but you'll likely have to do it AT LEAST once more in the summer and likely twice. I'm too lazy for that.

If you want to get it all and it's tall and thick, spray now, then 2 weeks before you wanta work it up spray again. I'd think it would be OK to bush hog between sprays to get down to any new growth or something that was missed . If you only want to spray once , hog it about July 30 then in about 2 weeks spray.

We sprayed, disked waited a month and then sprayed and disked then planted. We finally got rid of some arrow leaf clover that way.

Your July 30 plan or Teacher One's response will work well.Good advice above. But, I will add this:

Glyphosphate is a contact herbicide, meaning it has to get on the leaf to be absorbed. If you have grasses low to the ground and taller Johnsongrass, you may want to bush hog once to get everything about the same height. Note that you need to wait a couple of weeks for regrowth to get good uptake. Try a couple of different things with different fields this year to see what gives you the best results. I've done it with and without bush hogging first so it works either way.

I use a different approach. I don't bushhog prior to spraying.

I spray, wait two weeks and then burn. Do this a few weeks prior to when you want to plant.

Do you get a permit to burn or just say F it? Always makes me nervous burning in sept.

i think he is talking about burning it down with gly.

we spray a month before we plan to plant. everything dies and falls and is less than 6" tall.

I suspect he means fire. He must own the land he hunts, or leases from an understanding individual.

MOST leasing companies would have screaming ****** triplets if you burned off food plots on their land. I have seen it done, though. They were professionals, but I was nervous.

We bush hog around the middle of July and spray in the middle of August and when we plant around September 25 everything is completely dead.

I burn with fire.

My landowner is very management minded and he burns his place regularly anyway.

We always disc a row or two around the plot to help contain the fire.

sounds like you are not wanting to bushhog first. If that's the case I would spray 3 weeks before you plant to give it time to die and dry up.

Every year we talk about not taking the time to cut the fields first, but we end up doing it. The issue with not cutting it first is #1 the gly doesn't burn up the field as well and #2 even if most of the field is dead ((which it probably will be) you are left with a lot of thatch to disc through. If you have a really heavy disc, you should be fine but we use a 8 ft disc that doesn't have the wait needed to easily cut through a bunch of dead stuff laying on top of the ground.

that's the ideal method if you are set up to burn/ have experience burning.

I think he's talking about fire. A buddy of mine in S bama does this. They probably plant 50-60 acres a year and this is the quickest way to prep a field. I believe you are also helping your soil by burning.

Burning the plots is your absolute best option, if you are allowed to burn. The ash will help the soil.

If not, then bushhog in late August. Spray early September. Disc the last week of September and plant the first or second week of October.