Up at the farm over the weekend and got all the plots planted. Last weekend was 700 lbs of fertilizer and tilling, this weekend was planting. Got the three row behind the tractor Saturday morning and got about 7 acres of corn planted and cultipacked. Every thing is in and I am just waiting to get started at home.
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Looks great Sticker
We got a few clover and rye plots done this weekend. Hoping to have all the corn planted this week. We are adding in a few more clover plots this year.
Hey Sticker – I’m guessing the soil was warm enough now to plant?
Do you fertilize your soybean ground too?
If so, with what and how much? I always thought beans didn’t need anything but now I’m wondering if I heard that wrong.
Yeah, we are on high sandy ground at the farm so it dries out and warms quickly in the spring. It may not have been warm enough for beans, but it was for corn.
Yes, I do fertilize my beans plots and I do that off of soil sample recommendations. Beans almost never need nitrogen, but do require P(phosphorus) and K(Potassium).
I do that at the farm, at home I rarely fertilize my plots except when I plant corn I do add some nitrogen, but not nearly as much as I should. I have pretty rich ground at home so it grows the beans and corn pretty well without additional fertilizer.
Looks good Sticker. Nice planter setup.
It’s that time of year again. We’ve had a couple of good drying days this week already, so in heavier soil country the food plotters should really be able to get rolling by next week.
I was up spreading lime last Friday at the Midwest Monster home farm near Hinckley. It was dry enough to spread lime for sure, but we weren’t ready for tractor work, it was still too wet in the low spots.
If I had to guess, I’d say we’ll get rolling on the Eagle Forage Soybean planting sometime around May 20 if the forecast is anywhere near accurate.
Then we’ll move on to a plot where I’m replacing an old stand of Mega Clover Plus with the new AlfalfaMAX blend. This is going to be great, this will give over 3 acres of clover/alfalfa plots that were planted within the last year so plenty of forage tonnage for this year for the deer.
o you fertilize your soybean ground too?
If so, with what and how much? I always thought beans didn’t need anything but now I’m wondering if I heard that wrong.
Soybeans really do benefit from fertilizer as Sticker says. It’s usually a higher P and K number in most of MN. I use 4-28-32.
Much of the cost in fertilizer is in the nitrogen (first number), so soybean fertilizer is relatively low cost. Putting a lot of nitrogen on soybeans only helps the weeds so it’s a waste of money.
Grouse
Soybeans really do benefit from fertilizer as Sticker says. It’s usually a higher P and K number in most of MN. I use 4-28-32.
Thanks guys! Just what I wanted to know !!
The last soil test I got for soybeans suggested I put down 30lbs per acre of Phosphate and 130 lbs per acre of potash if that helps at all.
We still have some work ahead of us but we did get a few clover and rye plots done last weekend. Corn and a few more clover plots going in next week we hope. Once hunting is done we will hit the plots even harder.
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Looking good Hoyt4 
looking good everybody!
The last soil test I got for soybeans suggested I put down 30lbs per acre of Phosphate and 130 lbs per acre of potash if that helps at all.
It does! I prolly won’t get time for a soil sample, even tho I should, so I can use that and see what happens…should be close.
I have a bunch of forage beans left from last year to use and the 1 acre I planted last year was hit so hard, 3/4 of it barely got 8″ high. This year, I’m planting more so hoping some of it doesn’t get eatin while it’s still growing. They do like them!
My folks were up at the farm over the weekend and the corn is starting to pop. They said 2-3″ tall. That’s a good thing. I haven’t even thought of planting at home yet 
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Finally got up to spray the plots and although it was about perfect timing the weather didn’t cooperate. The wind finally let up yesterday morning so I got them all sprayed, but it rained 20 minutes after I finished 
Hopefully it was on the plants long enough to absorb. The corn is around 8″ tall.
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Now the big plot I decided not to plant this year because it was so over run with pigweed and ragweed. Instead the plan was to till it up a couple times then spray with 2-4D and gly in the middle of July, then plant winter rye in it mid August. I am glad I did this. I tilled it up back in may when I planted to rest of the plots. This is what it looked like Saturday. It lloks like some planted pigweed and especially ragweed in the plot it is so consistent. Spraying gly on this would have done nothing but waste time and money as both of these are gly resistant. Instead I tilled it up again which will give me 100% kill rate.
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Here it is after tilling, a brand new seed bed for those weeds to re germinate so I can get another good kill on them and try to wear down the seed bank in the soil.
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That is an absolutely beautiful crop of pig/ragweed! Wow. You couldn’t plant it better.
It’s a bummer you have to take the “year off” so to speak to kill it, but no doubt it needs killing by any means necessary.
Grouse
I got the final burn down on the plots at home last night. Next Wednesday I plan to get them planted. Ag beans in one, Eagle beans in another and Midwest Monster Alfalfa Max in another. By far the latest planting for me ever at home, but I feel confident about my weed issues.
I got the plots in last night. One plot I really customized, just for test purposes. I planted half the plot in ag bean, half the plot in Eagle beans, then in the Eagle beans side I went back and planted corn between the rows. There are several reason we wanted to do this. One was to see if the eagle beans would vine up the corn stalks. The plant seems to have a vining tendency, but not the structure to hold itself up if it were to just grow straight up. Without something to grab onto it tends to put on more structure to hold itself up, so we will see if it grows 7-8 tall when using the corn to vine. Also the corn will add cover hopefully making the deer more comfortable to feed in it any time of day.
One plot got planted in Eagle beans and the other plot got planted in 2 different mixes of Midwest Monster Alfalfa Max, again half the plot planted in each mix.
This will be a year of testing in the home plots. The biggest of tests will be the late planting time. Results to follow as we go along.
Sticker – I’m curious to hear how your alternating rows of corns/beans goes.
I’ve tried it a few years but the beans didn’t do much except on the edges and where there was sparse corn on the interior.
It’s like they didn’t get the sun and couldn’t compete so they died out.
Didn’t do that this year as it was wasted seed for the most part.
I’ll be seeding the bare patches with brassicas in about a month. They seem to do better.
Good luck and let us know what happens.
I did plant ag beans into my corn last year but in a section that was only about 12 rows wide, so they got plenty of light on both sides. they seem to do fine, but the deer hammered them first before going to the beans in the open. I am hoping they go after the Eagle beans in the corn again this year and leave the ag beans. This is a smaller plot so it doesn’t take long for them to clean it out.
Just up at the farm doing another round. Got some Alfalfa MAX from Grouse in the ground in one plot, some brassica in another, mowed off the mature winter rye cover crop over my clover in 3 others then got the burn down on the big plot. This is the plot that looked like I had planted ragweed in it when I was there a month ago. I tilled it up really good. When I got there Friday it look like I planted pigweed in. Less than a month and it went from bare dirt to 1-2′ tall pigweed throughout the plot. This picture is the next morning after I sprayed the plot. You can see all the pigweed is bent over. I think I will get a good burn down on it. August 16th we will plant winter rye in this plot.
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Corn plots all looked really good
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another plot
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Looking great!
What size tractor do you have? I need to upgrade from using my ATV for plots.
Thanks, at the farm we have a 55 hp New Holland, but I do just fine with plots at home with my 20 hp Nortrac tractor. I did plots for years with an ATV and yes with a tractor it is much easier and more efficient.
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