Mowing and Corn
 

Hey everyone....we are buying a new farm(250 acres) that has about 80 open, a five acre pond, a lot of hardwoods and borders a small river/swamps. I am wanting to bushog the open land this spring and am wondering if it will grow up to waist height or so by fall deer season? Also, I am very interested in planting some corn purely for the wildlife. I don't have a corn planter but I could probably get a broadcast seeder from my Uncle. Would that work at all? If so, what preparations would I need to take? Also, when should I start planting (Lunenburg, Va.)? Thanks a lot in advance!

RE: Mowing and Corn
 

needs to be sprayed with gylphosate, plowed up, done in rows, seeded fertilized, pushed down in streaks. Lots of work, great rewards though.

RE: Mowing and Corn
 

i'm not sure about spraying gly and then plowing. seems like a waste of money and time. plow the green stuff under first, disk it up a bit, let all the dormant seeds germinate then spray gly. then plant.

i'm no expert at this, so i could be wrong.

RE: Mowing and Corn
 

I'd go with your advice and add use a RR corn

RE: Mowing and Corn
 

If the grass/weeds were waste high last fall, it will likely be waist high next fall. Hardwood (or softwood) brush may not be.

Corn is planted in rows for easier management. Rows allows tractor movement through the field for various fertilizer, herbecide, and pesticide management as well as tilling. Corn planters can delivered plant populations at the desired concentration. All of this will maximize yields while controlling imputs for the farmer.

Having said that, corn can be broadcasted with some success. You will just have to understand that management of broadcasted plots will be more difficult and yields will be decreased. Getting the correct amount of seed down will be difficult. Weeds will be more of a problem and handling them will also be more difficult. However, I would not stop this from planting corn.

Last year for the hell of it, I broadcasted about .75 acre of corn with mix results. I had weed problems (mostly pigweed) and didn't put down enough fertilizer. Some areas, the corn population was too thin and others too thick. I also used feed grade corn not wanting to get too much money involve in this test project. The ear size varied from 4 to 8 inches. Some areas where corn population was too thick, the number of ears were low and size of ears suffered. In areas where corn was thin, the ear size was the largest, but weed competion was the greatest. Overall, for what I put into the plot, I was happy with it. There was some feed and a good bedding area (I jumped bedded deer out of it several times). By December, all the corn was consumed.

RE: Mowing and Corn
 

And you make a real good argument for using RR corn, especially when broadcasting the seed. With RR corn broadcast you can walk the field with a backpack sprayer and take care of those weeds with ease. Yep, RR corn is a lot more expensive but it makes the job of growing corn a whole lot easier. And don't sow the corn seed too heavy is good advice to heed also.

RE: Mowing and Corn
 

I like keeping my stuff weed free, gyphosate or rr corn works extremely well. If you dont have many tools, one way to lay the seed under the ground is use a 5-6 foot section of chain link fence. I usually bush hog, then spray with some gyphosate, wait a few days and plow it. Some say the extra glyphosate is a waste but I get it so cheap, I found it works rather well.

RE: Mowing and Corn
 

Thanks a lot ya'll...could anyone give me the basics on planting corn starting with the fields grown up right now at waiste hieght?? Thanks a lot!!!

RE: Mowing and Corn
 

The first year or two will be tough. Hopefully, you have just grass growing in your field and not a bunch of brush. The root system in brush may cause problems when plowing and tilling.

In Missouri I think I would tackle the field in this way using the equipment that I have at my disposal:

1) I think I would mow with my brush hog to get the stubble down to 6 inches.

2) I would plow the perimeter of the field making a 10 foot fire break. Maybe even plow a strip through the middle if it was larger then 2 acres.

3) Then gather some friends on fire friendly day and burn the field. Don't get carry away with the burning and don't start a forest fire. Be sure to make some type of fire break. Burning will accomplish several things. First it will reduce the plant material making plowing and tilling an easier job. Second, as a byproduct, burning will release some plant nutrients and allow these to be used by your corn crop.

4) After burning, plow and till the field. Plowing will be difficult, since it has not been plowed in a number of years.

5) Plant your corn, and Roundup Ready corn is a good ideal, since it can lead to easy weed control. You will have weed problems, since this is the first time this field has been worked for a number of years.

6) Top dress your corn with a high nitrogen fertilizer, but be sure to use some P and K as well. Use at least 200 lbs per acre. More would not hurt.

7) Spray as neccesary to get some type of weed control. Like I said above, you will probably have more weeds then normal, since this field has not been worked for a number of years.

I am sure others will add a few things and this is not the only way to work your area. It is just what I would do under your situation of waiste high field if I had it in MO with enough time to do everything.

RE: Mowing and Corn
 

Corn needs to be planted about an inch or inch and a half underground depending on the weather and ground temp. it also needs to be compacted some thats why they have press wheels on planters. We plant about 1800 acres in 30 in rows it is not all RR corn, some is conventional , I just shipped out about a $100,000 in seed corn the last two days and a lot of it was not RR. but it will all be planted with corn planters from 4 row to our 16 row planter..The cheapest bag was about $113. so dont do something that will waste your money.....