Mid June Update

This is the field that had liquid hog manure injected on the left and just plain stubble on the right. Check last season's posts for the pictures and how big the rye and tillage radishes were. Notice how little residue is left. The leaves of ARG really disintegrate and the oil seed radishes were killed back in December and were really dried up by spring.






















This is the worst field planted on May 29th. It had straw manure applied along with liquid pit manure. The slugs damaged this corn bad enough that some replanting will be done.



The hole that you see is from an oil seed radish that was planted last summer after wheat harvest and a manure application. You can also see how much residue is being consumed by earth worms with all the little midden piles around. I ran a Phoenix rotary harrow over it one time to help dry it out. The worms have done this since that pass.



This is the worst I have ever seen slugs. Probably 70% of the corn is coming, but slowly. Most crop consultants say treatment with bait is not very effective. I believe strip till would be the best answer for slug problems. Last fall and this spring just didn't allow enough time to get everything done.



In this pic the corn was planted on May 29th in the field that was wheat last year and inter seeded with medium red clover and alsike clover. This field planted the nicest of the three wheat fields I think partly due to being strip tilled last fall. The clover was sprayed on 4-22 and post sprayed on 6-11.


It's been a month since my last post and its still wet. I did get the corn all planted and the biggest of it side dressed with NH3. I still have some soybeans to finish planting yet. Some of the corn really looks tough. Its just been to wet for to long. Early planting and well drained fields are looking the best. The annual rye grass was hard to kill this year again. When I sprayed most of it on or about April 22nd it turned wet and cold after that and had a very slow kill. In my updated pictures you can see the regrowth that has occurred. For me this isn't surprising because its what I've seen before and plan to make a second pass with my herbicide application. My focus corn fields with the cover crops were planted on 5-29. Conditions were not ideal, but on two of the fields I have a good stand. On the third field I had a slug problem that killed some plants and others that were delayed emergence due to feeding at the growing point. These fields would have been dry enough back in April to plant, but I made the choice to let the cover grow a little longer. Than an early May planting window didn't happen and with the cover dead or dying these fields stayed wetter longer. On the 10th of May I switched to beans during that window. These beans seem to be doing better than the corn planted at that point.

May 14th update

My first thought is this season isn't going to be as good as last season. It's been wet now for three weeks. Though there was a lot of corn planted in April from the 17th to the 23rd. For the most part stands are OK. There are some wet spots that will need to be replanted.

The timing for my cover crop fields didn't work well with the weather this spring, as they are not planted yet. In early April I did not spray yet because it was cool and I wanted a little more growth. I did spray them on April the 22nd. Than it rained. I had a two day window on May the 9th and 10th, but the ARG fields going to corn weren't quite fit to plant. Partly due to the fact that they had been sprayed and were dying and were not pulling moisture out of the ground.

I did however plant soybeans into cornstalks some bare and some with ARG cover that are in the pictures. The stalks with ARG cover were sprayed on Sunday and planted on Monday the 10th. Conditions were good and hope to get good stands here.

These timing issues are one of the bigger hurdles to overcome with cover crops. In my opinion that's why I don't think a producer can do 100% cover crops and still manage it. Somewhere between a half and one third seems to be my comfort level.

Due to wet conditions last fall I did not get strip till performed in my cover crop fields. If you read my posts last year this is a concept that can open that planting window up a little bit. I was considering doing spring strip till at the 4" depth but that window hasn't presented itself this year. One tractor does everytthing in my operation. So if its planting I'd have to stop to do spring strip till, and I'd rather be planting something whether it's corn or beans.

Focus fields

This is the latest spring picture of ARG that was flown on the standing corn last summer. I got an except-able stand this time.

It was still a little variable, I think based on either soil type or elevation in the field.









This is the field of medium red clover and alsike clover at mid April and its time to kill it.



In this field that had hog manure injected last summer the ARG really grew and got thick. Come spring when this picture was taken it created a thick mat that seemed to smother out the new growth this spring.


This is what a dried oil seed radish looks like come spring. Last fall the foliage was two feet tall and the bulb was three inches in diameter. It shrivels up to nothing. It definitely left a hole in the ground. If a corn kernel dropped into it, I don't think it would grow.

This is early April as things are starting to green up. On the left side of the picture is where hog manure was injected last summer and the ARG and Radishes had really good growth. On the right side of this picture the growth was lagging last summer mainly because no manure was applied last summer. It was covered with liquid hog manure last winter at 3000 gallon per acre. The early growth was more vigorous due to the manure and less vegetative cover from last summer.

This field was in wheat last year the '09 crop. I seeded annual rye grass and oil seed radishes in early august last year. This picture was taken the first of April at green up. This field had manure applied through the summer of '09 and through the winter of '10. You can see some of the small clumps of straw manure in this picture. In order for no-till to work I spread the manure thin and never later than March when the ground is still frozen. You just can't make wheel tracks in April or later and expect no-till corn to perform.






This picture was taken about mid April and its time to spray roundup to kill it and hopefully in about five days plant this field.

Year ending thoughts

Sorry for the long delay in updates. We were busy with a house remodel project that was running behind schedule, and at the same time adding to the grain storage facility. Fortunately the beans all were sold and went to town. The construction of a new grain leg and another grain bin was just finished by November 1st. We started putting in corn the next day. So harvest lasted a month longer than normal. Than after cleaning up all the construction mess and normal year end stuff it was Christmas already.
Average yields on the corn and bean crops were the best of my farming career. The corn yield on the field that was land leveled and seeded with annual rye grass cover was 205 bushels per acre. The other field that was showing strip till with the annual rye grass yielded 195 bushels per acre. The field that was showing the strips with cereal rye for cover yielded 181 bushel per acre. For this to make sense you may want to go back and read my previous posts.
Was this profitable when you factor in the extra costs for ARG seed and burn down cost. I will use the field that yielded 195 BPA.
Gross revenue using $3.85 for corn at 195 = $750.75
The machinery charges on this field were $75.00 per acre. This includes charges for lime application and and 3 passes for variable rate fertilizer application. One of these were used to spin on the ARG. Along with the normal planting, spraying, side dress N, and harvest operations.
The input costs seed, fertilizer, chemicals, ARG seed were $384.00 dollars. Leaving $292.00 dollars before land charges.
The one variable that can't be directly assessed is what the effects of long term cover crops do for the soil health. The increased organic matter could lead to using less fertilizer. It could also lead to better and deeper roots on the corn plant itself thus making it better able to withstand dry periods. This could be a key point. If its not higher yields maybe it could be more consistent yields from year to year during weather extremes.
My challenge to anyone thinking about using cover crops would be to pick a field and than commit to putting some type of cover crop on it for four years straight. In a corn and beans rotation this is easy. If wheat is in the rotation the volunteer wheat could be tricky to handle. For those who are going from full width conventional tillage, I would use strip till as an intermediate process for the years that go to corn and no-till the beans. At the end of four years I think you will be amazed at the soil tilth.
I am starting to think in terms of using different blends of cover crops. It seems that the ARG is a little inconsistent with regards to stand establishment and winter hardiness. So maybe putting some cereal rye along with ARG would be better. Or after wheat when you can seed earlier in the summer using a mix of oil seed radishes with ARG. Or using clover frost seeded into wheat in the spring and than add to that some ARG or cereal rye in the summer could achieve a nice mix.
I will start the 2010 season with some pictures of the fields that were seeded to cover crops the previous season. I have 3 fields that ARG was flown on. I have the two manured fields with ARG and oil seed radishes. I have a field of medium red clover and alsike clover following wheat that was strip tilled last fall and will plant corn into those strips.