Thanks!......

I grew a small test strip if sunflowers along the inside of my fence where the deer couldn't get to them. They seem to be a hell of lot easier to grow that way.......

A lot of folks with small acreage plots are beginning to invest in E-fence set-ups just for this purpose. This may be a good option for folks who want to grow summer crops of things like sunflowers but can't due to deer browsing pressure. Deer browsing can have a significant impact on your results.

Next spring I�m going to go with a 50/50 mix of turnips and radishes. This is just one of a few dozen volunteer radishes growing around the field but you can see how the deer are still utilizing the regrowth of the greens. I wonder if the radishes have a higher sugar content maybe. It crazy that the deer can pick the radishes out amongst all the other greens available and just browse them but not the turnips or collards. Maybe they can smell the difference.

I noticed something similar a couple seasons ago. While bowhunting, I noticed that deer would feed around the turnips and radishes and only eat the tritical. Once the first frost hit, they started hitting to turnips and radishes, as well.

Lew from northern Michigan sent some pictures of his current throw and mow experiment using wheat and clover. Hard to believe that he�s already putting cereal grains in but he�s only a few miles from Canada��different growing season for sure.

A few of the resident doves that hang around my orchards�..Hell, there�s enough of �em in this pic for me to waste a box of shells on. I suck at shooting doves.

C�mon Sept 12!!!!���

It would probably take me 3 boxes of shells just to hit them sitting on the power lines.

CNC, we were able to get soybeans into this field last weekend, but only where we disced up the soil.

I'm considering spraying the native forage around the perimeter in August and throwing out a small-seed mix for fall growth in September. It would be great if I could do this on my own without getting a tractor involved. Do you think I'd have much luck if I simply drug some old car tires over the dead grass after throwing seed? Thought that might help get the seeds to work down toward the soil a little better. As you can see from the pic (from February) there is a decent amount of thatch to work with. What we do where the soybeans are may be a function of how much is still standing come September (if anything).

To be honest....I really don't even go enough to say that I dove hunt. I may go out here on opening day and sit awhile but it usually ends up with me saying the same thing every time...."Fugg it...It's too damn hot...I'd rather watch football."

Let's wait and see what it looks like around the end of August and then decide what to do. I think what you are describing will work fine if the grass doesn't get too tall. You may be able to just spray and then broadcast into the grass right before a rain......but let's wait and see what we're dealing with closer to time to plant to make that call. Your field is looking nice.

Did you put any milorgranite on your field?

Thanks. Yes, put a 36-pound bag on each of the two plots (other not shown) to help keep deer away until the beans can get established (fingers crossed).

Good luck with it Joe. Keep us updated.

Day 21 after mowing. As expected, there�s lots of grass coming in now and taking over the field. This is going to make for a nice crop of biomass by summer's end. There�s actually still a lot of pea stems left out in the field too but they�re just getting browsed as fast as they can put back out any growth. Too many deer eating on too few acres. The most important thing to me right now though is that my field is productively putting out plenty of lush biomass with good color. The soil is becoming very productive.

This grass component that�s coming in now will be what makes the crop of hay that I�ll use to cover my fall seed mix. I was hoping by mowing midsummer that it would put my biomass around waist high or just slightly taller at planting time but its going to end up being whole lot taller than that I believe. If it does get chest high or higher then that�ll be a LOT of biomass to put down at one time as being thick as it is. Too much actually. It�ll be so much that it�ll smother out some of my clover and cereal grain seedlings and act more like weed suppression. Made that mistake last year and smothered out a lot of clover. If I get later into the summer and its as thick as I think its going to be�then I�m going to mow at a much taller height so as to put down much less biomass to the ground at planting time. The rest of the stems and stalks I�ll leave standing over winter and allow to begin decaying in the air. I�ll likely mow the biomass around knee high. As long as sunlight can reach my new seedlings I should be fine. We�ll get into that a little more in a few weeks though as fall planting gets closer and I see just how much standing biomass I have to deal with as well as how much is still remaining on the soil surface.



Day 10����.



Day 21����.

This was last fall�s plot after planting to give you an idea of where we are eventually headed with the hay that we are currently growing��..

If I spray in August can I spray again at the same time I throw out small seeds in September? Will gly harm the seed? My understanding is gly mainly works through the leaves and becomes neutral once reaching the soil. The second spray would be an attempt to kill off any regrowth after the first spray.

yes, you'll be fine. It won't hurt the seed at all. you could spray it directly on the seed and it wouldn't affect it

Thanks. Figured I'd be OK, but wanted confirmation from the Pros.

I agree. You won't have to spray twice though. Just wait until about 2 weeks before you get ready to plant and hit everything with a couple qts of gly to the acre and it'll be toast when you get ready to spread seed. Something else to think about....If your standing "hay" is thin and you spray 6 weeks ahead of planting....you won't have any hay to cover your seed come planting time. It'll do like bacon cooking in a skillet and leave you with a lot less than you thought you had to begin with.

Of course, I'm a rookie at this so correct me where I'm wrong, but I've sprayed around the house a good bit (along sidewalks, a hill behind the garden where it is hard to mow) and I get a lot of new growth a few weeks afterwards. I assume this is from old seeds that have been laying dormant even though the "seed bed" was not necessarily disturbed. This is why I'm thinking to spray a second time. Or, is the idea that the fall plot mix will choke out enough of these "weeds" so that the small grains/clover/rape etc. can establish themselves? I realize not all "weeds" are bad, but I do want what I throw out to do well.

Joe......When you plant this fall your going to be at the very tail end of the growing season for summer weeds and grasses. Most of them will have gone through their annual life cycle and be ready to terminate naturally anyways by mid to late Sept. The last couple of pics of mine you see posted above showing last year�s fall plot�..that�s with zero spray. That was nothing but throwing and mowing around the first week of October.

If you want to go ahead and spray just to be safe since this is your first go at it�..wait until around September 10-15 or there about and then spray�.come back in around the last week of Sept or first week of October and plant. Also keep in mind that you�re only a few weeks away from the first frost as well. You�re not going to get a bunch of summer time regrowth at that time of the year.