I have a plot of around 3 acres consisting of a mix of standing sunn hemp, sunflowers, vining soybeans, and volunteer weeds. If I wanted to mow a few shooting lanes thru it and plant them in a fall/winter mix (oats, rye, clover), what steps do you guys recommend? In the past I have sprayed, cut, tilled, and then sowed. But I would like to get away from tilling so often. Thanks.

Wait until early Oct......broadcast your mix where you want the lanes to go and then mow the vegetation down over the seed. The key factors to success are having a soil surface in a good mellow condition and then having enough thatch to cover your seed. If either of those are lacking then you'll need to improve things before you'll see really good results.

Thanks! That's what I am going to try. An experience I had this Spring/Summer has kind of opened my eyes to the importance of leaving some organic thatch to decompose in the soil. Before I begin planting this past Spring, I burned the thatch off in 1/2 of the field, and left it in the other 1/2. The section where I left the thatch made a much better plot than the burned section, despite the whole plot getting the same fertilizer application. If I can also cut down on labor, diesel, and erosion in the process, that is even better.

CNC has it right. I did exactly that in my bean field last year with oats and it turned out great.In a month I had emerald green lanes of Oats winding through the beans.

Good deal! There’s a lot of benefits to leaving thatch on the soil surface…..moisture retention……soil temp regulation…..O2 regulation…….erosion control…….water infiltration…..food for microbial life…..etc

Got a half acre plot going in today or Monday, it's been fallow for 3 years. I'm gonna plant turnips radishes, rape, and wheat. I'm gonna take the four wheeler and just ride the existing plant life down as a mat on top of it.

CNC, do you think a lawn roller like this would lay down existing vegetation?

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/p...l-lawn-roller-18-in-x-40-in?cm_vc=-10005

I dont see any reason why it wouldn't, and that's seems reasonably priced. I assume you fill with water?

Yea that's right. Just from the little I've looked around there are different sizes. You can get weights anywhere from about 400 pounds up to 900 pounds depending on size.

I like it

I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work. Just looks like a cultipacker to me....

Once you get your field turned around and it starts becoming more and more productive…..your challenges will change. It will inevitably end up being…..”How the hell do I manage all of this biomass now!?!”

That’s kind of where I’m at now and I don’t have any definite answers yet…...Mowing becomes very cumbersome and slow once things get extremely thick. I think this may be where just a simple drag or maybe a cultipacker becomes a better option.

I snapped a few pics as I was walking around yesterday……Habitat management for deer pretty much just revolves around managing the understory to continually produce early successional growth. This is what I’m trying to do across the whole place. My field is just a little more intensely managed but its still the same basic concepts and mirroring the things we see in natural systems……..

CNC, do you burn?

No…..I’d love to be able to but I’m just not set up for it yet and it’s really a situation/location where there’s a few factors that really make it iffy to light up big fires anyways. I just mow what I can in late winter before spring green-up. Other areas I set back succession with spraying and some areas I hinge cut to set it back…etc….A little bit of this and that to keep bringing things back to early growth. This wouldn’t be feasible on large areas but I’m just dealing with small property management so I can get away with it. I've done a lot of hack n squirt as well to get more sunlight coming in.....

CNC you may have stated this before but how much property do you fiddle with in these pics. Im assuming its all behind your house?

25 acres…….Yes, it surrounds my house.

Natural regrowth. I just cut a trail to my shooting house. I’ll plant Rye, clover , and some turnips when it gets a little cooler.




Same field 2y ago when i first started TnMow



View from the road up.

Question for the Pros:
Planted summer plots with Sunflower, LabLab, Cow Peas and Buckwheat. They have all done great and are currently being used pretty heavy by the deer herd. One field in particular is doing really well and holding up to the browse pressure. I was hoping to leave about half of that field standing for early bow season. My question is how would you go about planting our winter plots under all those peas and LabLab. Would it be as simple is just broadcasting the seed into the standing peas and then mowing the summer crops once they go dormant?

Very nice toothdoc…….That's a beautiful view!


Southernroots…...Yes, just broadcast your fall mix into the existing vegetation and mow it down over the seed.