farm hunter

Talondale

The rye plot was for fall attractant - but also as a cover crop - to maintain N levels for next year's Corn Crop. This Rye Follows 2 years of Red Clover.

The Rye will be sprayed with roundup - then turned under as "green manure" when it starts to yellow. Then Round up corn will be planted.

The 2 acres of corn next to it will be Round up Soybeans - then a few years of White Clover mix.

FH

RonM

Sean why are you going to spray it with Roundup prior to turning it under, just turn it under save the money?

farm hunter

Do you think It will disk out OK - if I don't Spray it? Its pretty thick - roots and all. I'm just not sure my 2 bottom plow will turn it over well - Maybe you are right I'll try it first - especially since we'll spray Round up at 4 weeks after planting RR Corn.

Thanks Ron

Sean

greg-dude

You may want to clip it then plow it under without using Roundup, especially if the rye is over a foot tall. The clipping should make plowing a little neater and easier and will help with the discing. We use to plant wheat in our garden in the fall and had problem with it later in the year. The plowing wasn't bad, but some of the wheat seam to come up after plowing and discing. Problably a bad plowing job. The Roundup spraying at 4 weeks should take care of any volunteer rye.

RonM

You shouldn't have any volunteer rye as it has not headed up yet, but plowing cover crops under is referred to as green manure crops and let it be alive when you plow it under and it will decompose as green manure and not be dead grass when plowed, if the disc wont cut it then put weight on the disc and disc it a few times it will break up, it really does not need to look like a garden for planting corn for food plots. Hey fuel is $2.00 a gallon, save when you can...

greg-dude

The volunteer wheat I was talking about came from the plowed wheat that somehow managed to survived being plowed and disced. There wasn't much, but it was still a pain. We found out that if you mow before you plow, the ground worked up better with less trash catching in the plow and disc and fewer wheat plants survived. We never kept count, but you may even required a few less passes with a disc with this method and could actually save you gas money. You can mow immediately prior to plowing and still have the green manure effect. This is just what worked well in our garden situation. Our garden was about an acre. You may also have a better and deeper plow then what we had, which will work more effecient. We typically were only able to turn about 6-8 inches of soil when we plowed.

Phade

Looks like you got a little slice of heaven here in upstate NY FarmHunter

I am sure you have posted this before, but what amount of land do you have in tillable fields vs. Woods?

You talk about several plantings, the corn, etc. and I was wondering how many fields of different forages you have at a given time.

RonM

greg that would work even if you cut it ;close and let the loose cut plow under with the roots, if it gets too tall it might need mowing, but I would n't spray it with roundup.I mentioned several months ago I had the same problem with cover crop in a garden....