CNC

Above you mention sunflowers and buckwheat. Will sunflowers sprout from T&M? I was thinking about doing a couple places with ICP and sunflowers but that would require disking. I would love to be able to do it this way...

Yeah, they’ll do ok if you’ve got some topsoil built up. You may want to go a little heavy on the seeding rate. They get eat up about as quick as they sprout around here though. I’d do a multi-seed mix if I were gonna do a summer T&M…Sunn hemp may be a good addition too but I’ve never tried it in a T&M planting. It looks to have a fairly small seed though so it should do fine.

OK one more question.

Would a mix of sunflowers, buckwheat and sunn hemp work as T&M in a pasture? I have good organic material down about 10" but it has not been disked for many years. I would like to let the pasture green up and then spray roundup. Wait 2 weeks then broadcast the seeds and mow it down, hopefully right before a rain. Would like to do about 25 acres but dont want to waste my money. Your way would go a whole lot faster than spraying,waiting 2 weeks, mowing, then disking, broadcasting and cultipacking...

Gonna be too compacted.

I'd do a 1/2 acre or 1 acre test plot first and see how it works out before trying 25......If the test area looks ok after a couple weeks then do the rest.

The deer are killing the clover right now. It can be a little hard to see this time of year because they pretty much devour the whole plant. The stems and leaves are really tender and succulent. They’ve pretty much wiped out the clover growing in the back of the field and around the edges. There’s still plenty left in other areas though.

I think if you’re really trying to get serious about growing and managing deer….….then providing them with plenty of late winter/ early spring clover is something that doesn’t need to get overlooked. The reason I say that is because bucks are finishing up the rut at this time. The less run down they become and the quicker they are able to recover…..the more potential they have moving into the next growing season. You don’t want them in poor condition when they drop antlers and start growing their new ones. Crimson clover begins to jump in Feb and provide the deer with quality forage during this time period.

What month should my rye play out naturally so I can plant my sun hemp and ICP without spraying?

June

It'll terminate by mowing anytime after it goes to seed. You'll have a window from about early May until about early June......I'd wait until late May or early June to plant sunn hemp. You want the soil temps to be good and warm for sunn hemp.

Is your rye nice and thick??

Some places, not so much others. That's why I want to go with sunn hemp. I want as much biomass as I can get.

If your rye isn’t thick then you probably won’t get very good results. If the rye isn’t thick then it won’t suppress the summer vegetation….aka “weeds”…. and they’ll already have a head start on what you’re trying to plant. Also, if the rye isn’t thick then you won’t have enough hay to cover your summer seed you’re trying to plant. Just keep these things in mind. A little N right now will help you push out some more hay growth from your rye. Total vegetation (biomass) produced is your main concern right now. Don't watch that rye struggle or turn yellow.....help it thrive. A lot of its benefits come from the root system it puts down as well as the above ground hay that's produced. Right now is when that root system takes off and does its thing.

My natural screening that I mowed the other day is already beginning to regrow. The green patches are dog fennel that’ll grow up and make a nice screen by the end of the summer.

The wild temp swings back to colder weather is causing the plants to show stress. Yellows, reds, and purples are signs of stress……you just need to decipher what’s causing it. Is it large temp swings?.....Is it a nutrient deficiency?......Is it drought?.....Is it over browsing?.....etc….etc……Healthy soil practices helps buffer against stress.

Here’s the cereal rye showing stress as well due to the big temp swings…..It’s kinda patchy, showing worse in some areas than others. I would guess that it’s the cooling off of soil temps that’s causing this.

I was mowing the yard and couldn’t help myself…..I had to make a run through the rye. It’s lower than I meant to mow it but that was as high as I could pick the deck up on my lawnmower. I think I may go ahead and mow it all before the rye starts going to seed. The rye should bounce back and grow more biomass…..kind of like double cropping it. It may thin out a little but that’ll be fine. A lot of areas are so thick now the clover doesn’t have much room.

Biomass that will become soil organic matter……building soil.

Looks great!

Thanks!.....It’s really putting off some growth this spring with the warm temps we've had early on.

Can't wait to start working on my fields. Gonna try using the cultipacker rather than bush hogging this years (see email I sent you) to push the grass down. Similar to the method Dr. Woods was promoting last year with the roller crimper, but waiting til the rye/wheat/oats die off. Already have a cultipacker, thankfully!