Plot progress

Little brother was at the farm last weekend and took some pics for me. Unfortunately he didn’t get me pics of all the plots but got a few. Here is the progress so far with no rain. If we could get an inch or two I think these would really take off.

Not sure what happened with my corn but it looks like it is planted a little too heavy in the rows. I know I used the same plates and setting as last year. Maybe the corn seed I got this year was smaller and went thru the plates faster. I am not going to worry about it as they are planted on 26″ rows, but it does bring up the point that I should have calibrated my planter with the seed I was using before planting. Just another green horn mistake by your truely

The beans are just starting to pop up there, but it looks like the corn has a good start. At home where we have gotten decent rains until just lately the beans are doing much better. The pic of “west plot” is one of my bean plots at home.

Attachments:

1. 

   west-plot-2.jpg
   

2. 

   trevs-trail.jpg
   

3. 

   field-plot.jpeg
   

4. 

   grebes-plot.jpeg
   

5. 

   big-plot.jpeg
   

Stopped and checked the plots on the way back from Montana. I was not real impressed with the bean, but the corn is looking good. I think the lack of rain has kept the beans from germinating. Fortunately we finally got rain Monday night. .75″ should get the beans going I hope. Back in 2 weeks to spray.

Plots at home are doing very well, both beans and corn. They were planted 2 days after the ones at the farm, but we have gotten nice timely rains at home.

Attachments:

1. 

   west-plot.jpg
   

2. 

   west-plot-2.jpg
   

3. 

   back-plot.jpg
   

They are looking good. It seems like every other day I’m getting a Farm Log email saying that it rained on my plots. Hopefully they don’t drowned out. I haven’t heard yet if they were able to plant the corn. I will be back up at the beginning of July to plant my brassicas.
DT

We’re wet up at my property as well. Over the last 2 weeks we’ve had 1.45 inches, but that fell on damp ground, so while it’s not a “lot’ of rain, it keeps everything plenty soft. According to FarmLogs.com, we’re just 8% wetter than the 10 year average, but that contains some VERY wet years.

Am heading up on Saturday hoping to go to town on some rocks and get some plot cleared for July and fall plantings.

I planted 1 acre of a new blend I came up with, it’s technically a fall blend but I wanted to try it as a spring planting to see how the deer liked it as it might be useful for a cover crop. It’s oats, rye, peas, rape, and MRC. I’m very keen to see how it’s doing, it’s been in 2 weeks now.

Grouse

According to farm logs we have had 1.5″ since I planted on May 7th. .81″ of that came this last weekend. I sure hope this last blast gets things going. I can’t remember the last time we were too wet, but we are on higher ground with a sandy loam soil.

Grouse, let us know how that new mix works out and good luck with the rock picking. That sounds like so much fun

Guess Im missing out… explain to me FARMLOGS.. and how it works.

Thanks guys.

It’s a web site you can join for free and enter your farm on. You can do a lot of things with it, but I mostly use it for rain totals and keep track of what I planted where each year. Pretty cool website.

The first round of gly is complete on the plots at home. I seriously doubt I will need a second round on the beans. At 13″ rows they are already very close to canopying. In 10 days when the gly shows it’s full affect I would be willing to bet the beans will have canopied. My corn is on 26″ rows so I am sure that will need one more round about July 4th.

Heading to the farm this weekend to do the first round of gly up there and mow the rye/clover plots I put in last August. If the corn and beans are doing half as well up there as the ones at home I will be a very happy plotter!

2 years in a row I have bean issues, last year the ragweed overtook them, this year they froze out I was at the farm last weekend to spray gly. The corn looks decent to really good. Weedy, but I took care of that issue.

I didn’t find a bean plant in 3 different plots, some of the plots they were some but very few and sporadic. Talked to the farmer up there and he said a few guys lost the beans to the late frost and replanted Fortunately I have beans in stock in the crawl space at home, so I am headed back to the farm this weekend to replant the beans

I planted May 6th, which is the latest I have ever planted, but the cold snap on opening of fishing must have got to the young beans.

That’s a tough deal, Sticker. I guess the good news is that you’ve got time to replant.

On the trip out to South Dakota last week, there was planting activity going on everywhere west of Souix Falls. It’s been so wet down there that they are planting corn and beans and this is the second week of June, so you’ll be fine.

Grouse

You will be fine. It’s not like you are looking for a high yield harvest.

I am actually thinking of changing my routine next year for beans. I may fertilize and till during late April like I always do, but hold off on planting. Then in 2-3 weeks go up spray the corn that I planted in late April and the bean plots that don’t have anything planted yet. Then a week later go back up and plant the beans.

I seem to get a lot of weeds germinating after I till. If I can get a good burn down on them before planting I may have better success. The last 2 years I have struggled with weed control, before that I had no problem.

This plan will be determined by how my 3 row planter can plant in a no till situation this weekend; in fact, if the planter handles the no till well enough I may have to rethink all my planting. Having a sandy loam soil should make it fairly easy for the planter to plant without having to till, if the ground stays soft enough.

Time will tell, but after 2 years of struggling with weeds and drought and now frost, I have to change something up to be more efficient.

Good news is the plots are home are still doing very well . Beans are almost canopied as of 6/15/2016. Bad new is I have a couple small patches of gly resistant weed in the back plot. I think it is water hemp. I hit it again with a 50% stronger does of gly yesterday . If that doesn’t kill it I may have to hand cultivate it . If it’s water hemp it can spread really fast. If I can’t control it this year I may have to go with a non round up ready crop in that plot next year Here are the most recent pics of the plots and the weed that is causing me some stress.

Attachments:

1. 

   west-plot-6-15-2016.jpg
   

2. 

   back-plot-6-15-2016.jpg
   

3. 

   weed.jpg
   

4. 

   weed-2.jpg
   

Looks great Sticker, hoping ours look half as good as that.

I got up to the farm Thursday with 8 bags of beans and ready to replant. A huge sigh of relive when I got there and the gly I had sprayed the week before had taken out the weeds very well. Under those weeds I did actually have beans growing, small and not nearly as thick as I had hoped, but there were some there.

I hooked up the planter and planted more between the rows in hopes they will fill in. I did this on a couple of the smaller plots. On the big plot(3 acres) I hooked up the fertilizer spreader and broadcast 50lbs/ acre of beans seed. By that afternoon we got more rain so I am hopeful those will also fill in. I still had one area with young ragweed coming up, so I hit that again with gly. Hopefully the plants are young enough and the gly will put them down.

All in all it’s not a total loss, the beans will be ok, especially if the newly planted ones come in. The corn looked really good. Getting pretty tall already and again the gly really knocked the weeds back in only one week. I’ll know more when I get back up there in 3 weeks to plant the brassica.

Attachments:

1. 

   corn-june-18.jpg
   

2. 

   beans-june-18.jpg
   

Good news sticker hope that new seed fills in nice.

Beans are just about fully canopied at home. I sure wish they looked this good at the farm

Attachments:

1. 

   west-plot-june-23.jpg
   

Back up to the farm to spray and plant brassica last weekend. Corn is looking great, beans are doing ok, clover is coming in real strong now that I cut the rye. I wish the beans were planted thicker so they would canopy, but it is what it is for this year. Back up in a month to plant the rye/clover plots.

Attachments:

1. 

   trevs-trail.jpg
   

2. 

   elmers-clover.jpg
   

3. 

   Grebes-plot.jpg
   

4. 

   drews-clover.jpg
   

5. 

   big-plot.jpg
   

Nice looking plots. Corn looks really good, deer should be loving that.

Tough deal that the beans are a little think but what can you do? Managing properties for wildlife is like farming, you can only control so many variables and things don’t always work out according to Plan A.

I know I’ve felt like the weather was against me for the past 2 years with the HUGE amounts of rain we had in 2014 and 15.

It’s really nice that guys post these updates so others can see and learn for the experience. The one thing that’s come across to me in the past 3-4 years are the benefits of diversification. Having the eggs in multiple baskets between annuals and perennials, spring and fall plantings, etc. Everything that can be down to balance weather risks seems to eventually pay off.

Grouse

I know a lot of guys plant Rye as a cover crop & Clover at the same time. Wondering, could a guy plant Oats & Clover?

Absolutely, the only difference is the oats will probably winter kill and not come up in spring. That is why I go with rye, because it’s one of the first things to pop up in the spring, so it doubles as a spring food source as well. But oats will be a great draw and just as good of a cover crop as rye for the fall.

super_do wrote:

I know a lot of guys plant Rye as a cover crop & Clover at the same time. Wondering, could a guy plant Oats & Clover?

As Sticker says, yes you can (and I do) use oats. They will winter kill in most places unless you plant them early enough so they self seed in the plot and get very good seed survival.

I’ve put oats in with clover as a “nurse crop” to protect the clover from over-grazing when it’s young. Works great!

As an added bonus, to me at least, the wild turkey LOVE, love, love the oats and any other small grains when they are mature. I had one plot last fall that the turkeys would hardly leave, they worked it every day once the oats headed out.

I have an oats/rye/clover blend that I’m using this year as an annual plot. Rye especially has a very early green-up, so in the spring when nothing else is growing yet, the rye will be emerald green. At my property, I’m concerned about deer populations and increasing the population, so I’m very keen on providing early spring food to make sure the does have food at all times if the winter is rough. Rye makes a lot of sense to me.

Grouse

I’ve read that Rye doesn’t provide much in the way of nutrition to the deer. You guys have any thoughts on this? Good to hear that turkey’s love oats. We have never seen a turkey on the property, but did see a few tracks this spring.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

Rye especially has a very early green-up, so in the spring when nothing else is growing yet, the rye will be emerald green. At my property, I’m concerned about deer populations and increasing the population, so I’m very keen on providing early spring food to make sure the does have food at all times if the winter is rough. Rye makes a lot of sense to me.

Grouse

Curious how does rye come up in the spring so early? Is it from being left to go to seed heads or? Never planted rye but like the spring time green up alongside clover idea.

super_do wrote:

I’ve read that Rye doesn’t provide much in the way of nutrition to the deer. You guys have any thoughts on this? Good to hear that turkey’s love oats. We have never seen a turkey on the property, but did see a few tracks this spring.

First, it’s important to know that we’re taking about cereal rye here. As in the grain. NOT rye grass. They are totally different things.

Providing nutrition is always relative to whatever else is available. Relative to corn, no, rye doesn’t provide as much nutrition. But then again there isn’t very much corn available from November to August.

With all food plot crops there’s a competition going on between what you’re growing and the quality of whatever else is available. I had a comment from a first time grower of my Brassicas Bender mix that the deer seemed not to like it very much. Well, what do the deer seem to like? Oh, they seem to spend a lot of time in the neighbor’s corn field. Ummmm, give it 3 weeks and get back to me. What do you know? A month later the deer were all over the brassicas, about 1 week after the corn got picked and turned under.

Rye will look very good to deer when it’s the only thing green out there. I’ve seen deer mow acres of rye to the nub when it was sticking up from under 2 inches of crusty snow in early December. It was far and away the best food available without digging, it was a tremendous spot for late season bow guys.

basseyes wrote:

Curious how does rye come up in the spring so early? Is it from being left to go to seed heads or? Never planted rye but like the spring time green up alongside clover idea.

What we’re talking about here is winter rye (see above note, we’re talking again about cereal rye here, not rye grass), so like any “winter” grain, it’s planted later in the growing season. In most of MN, that’s usually somewhere in August or early September.

The general idea is the winter rye sprouts, gets established, but does NOT form a head. If it forms a head, it has matured and will likely die in the winter. If by chance you plant too early and it’s getting too tall, it should be mowed to prevent it from heading out.

The nice thing about a stand of rye is that it stands well even under light snow, so while clover will be mostly buried in even 2 inches, rye will stick up through the snow.

The plant goes dormant in the winter, but with rye this still means it turns a nice green as soon as the snow melts off. The next spring, the rye will simply resume growing where it left off. But it starts growing very early, I don’t think it even needs totally unfrozen ground to begin to grow.

Of course it will mature sometime in the late spring / early summer. Most food plotters either mow it to keep it from maturing or terminate it with roundup to plant some other crop in the rotation. Everything depends on your goals and what you’re trying to attract.

Grouse

Stupid question, what happens to oats or rye when mowed as far as food plot value?

Is rye better than winter wheat?

Have had good luck with oats planted in early to mid August. Have disc’d clover and planted oats only to have the clover come back with a vengeance with the oats growing great as well. Never had the oats last through the winter in to spring though, so extremely interested in a spring boost for the does and fawns. We have property up ne of Meadowlands, so it’s a little different than south Texas with food plots.Trying to get anything other than oats and clover to last to October/November gets destroyed by the deer.

I think cereal rye and winter wheat are very similar. They both get planted late in the summer and both come up in early spring. I have never tried winter wheat, but have had great luck with cereal rye. I would guess rye is a bit cheaper, but I don’t know that for sure.

basseyes wrote:

Stupid question, what happens to oats or rye when mowed as far as food plot value?

Is rye better than winter wheat?

Have had good luck with oats planted in early to mid August. Have disc’d clover and planted oats only to have the clover come back with a vengeance with the oats growing great as well. Never had the oats last through the winter in to spring though, so extremely interested in a spring boost for the does and fawns. We have property up ne of Meadowlands, so it’s a little different than south Texas with food plots.Trying to get anything other than oats and clover to last to October/November gets destroyed by the deer.

The food value in cereal grain for food plots for deer is in the green plant, not the grain itself, so mowing just produces more green and prolongs the life of the plant. Mowing does not reduce the food value for deer. Obviously, turkey and upland birds are interested in the seeds, so to attract and feed a variety of birds, you need grain that matures.

I am running a little science experiment with winter wheat this fall, so I’ll file a report. Wheat produces excellent forage, in the central states cattle are often grazed on wheat and can gain up to 2.5 pounds a day on prime wheat. We’ll see if the deer like it better than rye.

As far as over-grazing, adding rye as a “nurse crop” to clover may help because rye can be very fast growing if fertilized. But ultimately, like any other crop, there is limit to how much grazing can be sustained. I would certainly try rye and a nice dose of 20-10-10 to see if you can get better growth.

Also, up by Meadowlands, have you tested your soil and/or spread lime? This is just a guess, but up in Bog Country it’s highly likely your soil is acidic. This is going to limit plant growth and nutrient uptake, so spreading lime is very important and to be honest not all that hard to do. Pelletized lime is easy to dump in a broadcaster and spread and while it’s more expensive than “ag” lime, IMO it’s worth it because it can be spread with equipment that I already own.

Grouse

Interesting.

Had a ph of right at 5.9 to 6.0 initial and it’s been slowly climbing. Have been spreading lime for almost a decade. The oats and clover grow like mad. Brassicas need some help in the fertilizer department. Beans and peas grow well. We are pretty fortunate to have 6-8″es of great topsoil. Brush hogging trails and clover plots is a challenge with how fast and thick everything grows.

For some reason never thought about mowing oats, rye or wheat. I am curious if a guy planted oats or rye earlier how palletable they’d be after mowing to deer? Timing is a challenge with oats to get it to that perfect height for tonnage and being palletable to deer.

Biggest problem up there is timing discing when it’s dry enough to not get stuck. Usually that’s in mid to late July. Going to start doing more discing in the late fall.

Here are the latest pics of the beans at home. Still going nuts! I think these may be my best beans ever

Attachments:

1. 

   july-24th-2.jpg
   

2. 

   july-24th.jpg