Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Quality Deer Management Throw n Mow Q&A

Here’s something to think about as we move into the spring and summer months……….

Decomposition is taking place every day. There becomes less and less of that old dead log out in the woods with each day that passes……..And so is the same for the organic matter in our soil too. It's steadily decomposing. We really only have two crops of biomass each year where we are able to replenish that organic matter and possibly increase it’s % in the soil..... which is one of the main reason for this whole idea of "no-till" to begin with.

Now is the time when we begin to grow our first biomass crop of the year. We may have planted it back in the fall but over the next couple of months is when we will see our biomass yield from our cereal grains. If you’re just getting started in the process of turning your soil around…..you may want to hit your fields with some nitrogen right now in order to help push out as much growth from your cereal grains as possible. If you’re not producing good crops of biomass then you’re still going backwards in terms of OM% in the soil even though you may have stopped tilling…..

Keep this same idea in mind too as we move from spring to summer and transition into our second crop of biomass that is produced from roughly May-August. If you don’t end the process by producing a healthy crop of biomass to add back to the soil, then your OM% will steadily decrease. You won't actually be changing anything.