Post by simplynaturalfarm on Jan 7, 2018 19:57:46 GMT -5
We are still figuring out what to do with the tillable land we have here. Renter cut his corn just before christmas and left 2-3 foot tall stubble everywhere and the leaves in a thick mat on the ground (he does no til with heavy herbicides)
i can't fathom how anybody would seed anything into that, but I do believe he was going to re seed corn this coming year in between the rows of old corn as he doesn't no til soy and so it wouldn't have made sense to leave that kind of residue( he grows mainly corn and soy and does no til on corn). We are probably not going to rent it back to him as not happy with herbicide levels - just a personal choice for us and not passing judgement on any of you!
The local soil office does have a no til you can "hire" (they will not rent it) but everybody here says good luck getting them to get anything done in time as there is a lot of seeding they always need to do. And they charge $25 an acre and the last time we paid them to plant something (not them but northern group) nothing came up in that entire field.
We are seeding an alfalfa pasture mix on 6 acres that had wheat in it this year, and then due to tremendous restrictions on what will grow on the rest due to the level of herbicides sprayed, we will be doing barley and clover on 20 acres for the cows to have something to graze all summer and potentially bale and then the rest in feed barley - can you tell barley is the one thing we are supposed to be able to grow next year? .
The guy we bought our hay from said he would mow it and then disc/cultipack and drill it in. Do you guys have any recommendations? We do hope to leave at least 20 acres in annuals so we can have early spring rye and late fall cover crops to graze into winter and clover for bees so it wouldn't be the end of the world to have some cheap second hand equipment for us to seed the things I mentioned.
I'm thinking we could probably find a local farmer who we could pay or trade some work to get it done, but what would be best to have done on that thick residue in order to plant the things I mentioned?
i am a fan of not disturbing soil if necessary. cover crops, mulch etc are great, no til with roller/crimp is best (so out of budget) and I have wracked my brain to figure out how to successfully broadcast, but some of the seed is so expensive that to have to almost double seeding rate and just hope you get as much as 60% take is expensive.
i can't fathom how anybody would seed anything into that, but I do believe he was going to re seed corn this coming year in between the rows of old corn as he doesn't no til soy and so it wouldn't have made sense to leave that kind of residue( he grows mainly corn and soy and does no til on corn). We are probably not going to rent it back to him as not happy with herbicide levels - just a personal choice for us and not passing judgement on any of you!
The local soil office does have a no til you can "hire" (they will not rent it) but everybody here says good luck getting them to get anything done in time as there is a lot of seeding they always need to do. And they charge $25 an acre and the last time we paid them to plant something (not them but northern group) nothing came up in that entire field.
We are seeding an alfalfa pasture mix on 6 acres that had wheat in it this year, and then due to tremendous restrictions on what will grow on the rest due to the level of herbicides sprayed, we will be doing barley and clover on 20 acres for the cows to have something to graze all summer and potentially bale and then the rest in feed barley - can you tell barley is the one thing we are supposed to be able to grow next year? .
The guy we bought our hay from said he would mow it and then disc/cultipack and drill it in. Do you guys have any recommendations? We do hope to leave at least 20 acres in annuals so we can have early spring rye and late fall cover crops to graze into winter and clover for bees so it wouldn't be the end of the world to have some cheap second hand equipment for us to seed the things I mentioned.
I'm thinking we could probably find a local farmer who we could pay or trade some work to get it done, but what would be best to have done on that thick residue in order to plant the things I mentioned?
i am a fan of not disturbing soil if necessary. cover crops, mulch etc are great, no til with roller/crimp is best (so out of budget) and I have wracked my brain to figure out how to successfully broadcast, but some of the seed is so expensive that to have to almost double seeding rate and just hope you get as much as 60% take is expensive.