farm hunter

We got ours in BARELY on May 22.

Syracuse New York had a record 7.86" of Rain this month. We are about 30 miles away and estimate we got somewhere around 6" of rain for May. Keep in mind this is coming off 181" of Snow for the season - So things were plenty wet.

That said, it was warmer than normal, with the Mean Temp over 60 degrees (avg 57). So I think that helped. We planted about 5 acres corn (2 silage corn - requires cultivation -& 3 acres Roundup Ready) and 3 acres Roundup-Ready Soybeans.

This will be our first year trying Round-up Ready Crops - I'm looking forward to the results and plan to post some pictures this summer as we go along.

psandhu

my girlfriend and i planted 1/4 acre of sweet corn in the last 6 weeks. this rectangular section of corn is in the corner of my dove field. the dove field is planted with sunflowers. i used absolutely no preplant herbicide in a smaller part of the corn plot and it is just overgrown with weeds and grasses. i sprayed some 2,4d on it, now it's just overgrown with grasses. the rest of the plot i planted later, it's not in rows, just broadcast and disked. so far the corn in there has sprouted and no major weeds are appearing to compete with it. it should be maturing in july/august. i plan on using the stalks as a great big blind.

texasaggiebowhunter

Its not corn, but weve started planting cotton last weekend. Weve already got some cotyledon leaves on the earliest. Looks like we are gonna have a little over 1300 acres this year. All RR

greg-dude

It's probably too small of a plot, but I put in about 3/4 of an acre in corn that boarders a clover plot. Not exactly farmer approve method, because I plowed and disced a cereal grain in; top dress with 200 lbs. of high N fertilizer; and spread the corn with a small hand seeder; and then disc everything in. I even used regular feed corn instead of certified seed.

I am not too confident that the deer and the coons will allow a crop, so I went as cheap as I could. I figured that by August, I will either be proud of what I have, or mowed it down and plant it with some more cereal grains. As of now, the corn is about a foot high with a good stand. There is very few weeds in it which is a surprised to me. So far the deer have only been feeding in the clover plot.

Stinky

Farmhunter!!!! Nice to see you are still here. Im the guy that sent you the QDM mags a few years ago. I have not been here in over a year (new job, house and baby) But Im glad to see you are still here. I little wet in your neck of the woods! Not much better down here near Binghamton. My question is, What is "round up ready"? PS Look into your crystal ball and let me know when I will be able to get a truck with 9 tons of lime on my soppy field?
Have a good one,
Stinky

farm hunter

Ha Ha Stinky -

Its good to hear from you, and I still have those papers - and share them with my friends. thank you again for helping me out.

I know what you mean with the rain - but luckily, Temps were also above normal in most areas for May, that helped dry things out in alot of areas. It has been a fairly dry week, and unless you got one of the real HEAVY thunderstorms tonight, this weekend might be a good time to try - its supposed to be dry all weekend and in the 70s (not 90s like today).

For corn, I do not worry alot about Ph for deer. Corn grows quite well on soils with PH 5.5-6.5. I'm sure you get better yields with a more neutral PH, but more weeds grow too - that must be dealt with. This is our first year with RR corn, We planted both RR & our standard silage/field corn that must be cultivated manually for weeds (or sprayed with a chemical that we do not have a permit for).

RR corn is a genetically altered corn that is resistant to Glyphosate (Roundup). Glyphosate is a chemical that halts ALL photosynthesis in a growing plant. So when you spray the plot - all growing plants DIE except the corn - its a wonderful thing if you've messed with corn much. Also it isn't like Atrazine, in that the chemical breaks down organically in soil, and has no residual effect (- for the most part - according to Monsanto). No special permits are required to spray Glyphosate.

psandhu

fh,

can't you get a private applicators license? here in kansas you can get one. you have to study a book, understand the material, take a written test, then pay $25 for a 5 year license. this allows you to apply restricted use pesticides on your own land or on other peoples land as long as you aren't doing it for a profit. you can trade services. i'm probably going to take the test in the next few months.

PILOT

Farmhunter my corn is doing pretty decent as I just got it sprayed with roundup and the final application of fertilizer put on. It's about knee high right now. I think you will be happy with the benefits of RR corn and beans when it comes to fighting weeds. I tried something a little different this season. I planted thirty inch rows of corn with a single row of soybeans in between. Hopefully the corn won't shade out the the beans and I can maximize the food plot space in the plots. Even if the beans do get shaded out and don't produce beans the deer still have soys to munch on between the rows. I planted about 12-13 acres of corn and soybeans this season.

farm hunter

psandhu - I never knew what would allow you to get a permit - I suppose I should look into it - I always assumed I would have to run an active farm to qualify.

Pilot - Good luck with the beans/corn mixing. I've never done it quite like you described - but I've mixed Soybeans and corn at planting before with decent results. The problem I ran into was that when the beans were at Peak height, and blooming deer would start to key in on them in mid summer. And the corn being knee high to chest high was also getting browsed as well (since they were there?) When I plant corn alone - only the outer rows get beat up by deer in mid summer.

This year I planted a 30 YD strip in the middle of my corn crop (3 acres) and 2 "t's" off the main plot of beans too. I planted the strip of beans 30 yds wide, because I can envision setting up a corn blind, covering all the bean strip - What do you think?

PILOT

Farmhunter it's funny that you mention setting up corn blinds as this is something I have been working on as well. My field is 20 acres and is bowl shaped as it follows a creek that lays on the south edge of my property. I planted corn in a 50 yard strip along the creek and this strip connects two larger plots of corn that lay on the far east and west ends of the field. One of the blocks of corn is 4 acres and the other is 3 acres. This leaves a large ten acre plot completely surrounded by corn to the East ,South and West, and timber to the North. I've planted strips of corn that run North and South leading from the timber to the main corn field along the creek. These strips were planted to divide plots of different forages and to create travel corridors. My corn blinds will be located over looking these differnent plots and located just down wind of these corn strips. To further enhance these locations I plan on bushogging a trail that will run from where the strips of corn meet the main corn field straight to the creek.Also I planted a strip of sunflower/sorghum along the creek that runs for for several hundred yards. In Sept. I plan on bushogging some of this strip to create an access trail to the different corn blinds over looking these created funnels and different food plots. Last season I was amazed at how the deer would travel these 6' bushogged trails through standing crops of beans,sunflower and especially corn.
I love to plant corn on my property it serves many purposes. It not only provides cover and food for the deer but also funnels them and hides you as you come and go to your stands.
Farmhunter I wouldn't sweat it if the deer eat up some of your soybeans as you can bushog these stripped areas and plant something green like oats or wheat in Sept. and then your blinds are over looking three different forages instead of two. Good luck!