|
southern MN | My soils are clay based, fair amount of organic matter. Subsoil is 100 feet or more yellow and blue clay.
Fields are rolling hills of clay peaks and bowls of deep soil. The peaks drain to the bowls, if you don’t have tile you don’t have a crop in the bowls. In a wet year you probably didn’t afford enough tile to drain the bowls good enough.
I lose crop to too much water every year.
Many years I lose a little crop to too dry on the thin hill tops.
But the drowning is more frustrating because it’s the good rich dirt, higher yielding naturally. Bigger loss.
The best setup here is a dry spring so you can get a crop in early on good drier than normal dirt and let it root down into the subsoil. Then get some mid to late summer rains to keep the hill tops going. Over all a little drier than normal.
Record yields with that recipe ‘here’ in this dirt.
And I understand my version of ‘dry’ is different than your version.
Any rain of 3 inches or more is going to take down yield here. 2 inches is even a little much but common enough you just roll with it. The clay doesn’t drain water, it just oozes downhill through the topsoil to the low spots.
I really enjoy seeing the differences in farming in these threads.
Paul | |
|
Rain
