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.
