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| We rented the planter in the pics from a neighboring farmer who occasionally runs insecticide.
We were considering using the insecticide boxes to band ~6 lbs N/a as Chilean Nitrate over top of the corn rows in some plots but would have had to put on all the chains and thoroughly clean the boxes so we decided it was more important to get the corn planted.
We are planning to use insecticide boxes (most likely the boxes on our 4 row planter) to plant 2 different winter annual cover crops (cereal rye and winter rapeseed) while planting soybeans next week. The cover crops will be planted right over top of the soybean rows with the intention of improving in-row weed control. Both cereal rye and winter rapeseed establish quickly but require vernalization and thus eventually die without flowering when summer planted.
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Our experience (2009-2011) is that soybeans no-till drilled into a thick stand of cereal rye have almost no broadleaf weeds. Grasses are also somewhat suppressed but not nearly as completely (especially during wet years).
We terminated the rye by crimping the stems about a week after it started shedding pollen. This year the crimping was done 2 ways... 1) by drilling the beans (which knocked down more than half of the rye) followed by rolling with a steel drum with angle iron or 2) by drilling twice, off-setting 4" for the second pass using RTK guidance.
Joel
WIU Agriculture
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pics of crops, cover crops and planting at the WIU Organic Research Farm
