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cover crop question...educate me,.. dont bash..educate
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lfeikert
Posted 6/26/2014 09:54 (#3938343 - in reply to #3937289)
Subject: RE: cover crop question...educate me,.. dont bash..educate


SW KS		We have been trying different things for the last several years down here near Dodge City. 2 years ago we drilled some peas thinking that we would go in and get a 30 bu crop sell them for $12/bu and then plant a wheat crop behind them and have all the nitrogen we wanted and have an awesome wheat crop. We drilled the peas had a total of 2" moisture made 10-15 bu sold for less than $8/bu and left the ground bare going into wheat drilling time along with kochia in a few spots. Try killing those after they have been cut and in the middle of the summer. Follow that through and we drilled our wheat and had less than 6" through the whole wheat crop from drilling to harvest and we got a 8-10 bu crop. Compared to our neighbors who had wheat/milo/summerfallow we made the same as they did. So we werent too upset. Now the problem with the peas/wheat/milo is we didnt have any cover to save moisture and keep the rain in place when we got the rains. We drilled our milo June 15th and since the first of June we have had over 6" of rain with some runoff. The places where there is some wheat cover things look good. Where there is no cover I am afraid of it getting pretty hard and dry when the winds and heat come.
Another example is we put out cover after wheat 2 years ago and then drilled milo into it last spring. Going into that summer we talked about prevent plant because it was so dry, but got a 2" rain and decided to drill milo. From July 15th-Aug15th we had around 13" of rain on those fields and our milo made between 80-100 bu/ac. We werent expecting that going into the spring and summer! This spring we decided we were going to drill a 7 way blend in all of our milo stubble since we were going to get some rains. Well we drilled the covers on March 25 and had a total of .68" up until June 2. The covers where still alive but not very tall, maybe shin high or knee high at best. We got 2" rain on June 2 and the oats and barley got a little height on them. Since June 2 we have had over 6" rain on those fields and hardly anything is coming off of them. I am know thankful we have put those on because we didnt lose any moisture, since we didnt have any. The fields that havent had any cover crops on them are pretty weedy compared to ours. I think the covers helped with weed suppression even though not very thick. We sprayed our around the 15th of June and they are dying now. I guess all of this to say, I could be really upset that we drilled cover crops if we didnt get the rains and think that we "lost" the moisture but going into it we really had no moisture to be used up. Now since we have them killed and the rains have come in I think we are in an "ideal" situation for this fall where we will drill wheat. I don't know what our wheat crop will be for next year and we may not get another drop of rain until next year but we are trying to keep the soil healthy and keep praying that the rains will start up and the drought will go away. I hope this make sense and helps out a little. We do not run cattle either and its hard to show your kids that you should plant a crop and then kill it later to help out a future crop but that is what we are doing and with the rains things seem to make sense a little more.
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