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Dayton, IA | I am in my second year of transition on my first farm and am adding more organic acres . We custom feed pigs and already use manure so the only change for me was weed control. Corn is no problem for weeds, you can throw a lot of dirt into the row when it gets bigger and take care of most of the weeds.
For cover crop over beans going to corn I am going to do what everyone says not to and use rye. I will combine beans, spread rye on top of ground, spread liquid swine manure with disk applicator. Field cultivate early. I need to comply with NRCS for funding and they didn't have a problem with this, so I don't really care how much grows.
For me, I do tillage. Beans will be your hardest crop to keep clean, but you don't have to raise them if you don't want to.
This year I tried 80 acres of beans on half a field and put the rest into oats with clover underneath. Beans looked great up until middle of July when foxtail showed up. I think they would have been fairly clean but we had a 3 week period of rain in June when we didn't turn a wheel. When it dried up, got back in with a rotary hoe, but you could see small green weeds from the tractor, so rotary hoe wasn't too effective. Oats/clover are a great rotation with corn. Cut oats and any weeds in July, clover grows rest of summer. Cover with manure in fall and disk rip. Should be a big corn crop the year after.
I worried about weeds but as long as you are ready with equipment and get in before you see the weeds, you will have good control. Even in my weedy beans, they were clean up until they closed the row mid July and then the weeds came. Research shows that early weed pressure is hardest on yield. I have now made it through last year (wettest year ever for us) and this year (long wet spell after planting) and have not had weeds competing with the crop early. We use a tined weeder and rotary hoe and as long as you go before you actually see weeds, it really gives good control.
Just for bragging - I have never used both together, but we have 2 - 16 row Orthman cultivators and when the crop is bigger we can run them at 7 to 9 mph. When you figure that you can start cultivating earlier and go later then a sprayer, and there is no fill time, I can cultivate as many or more acres in a day then I can spray with our Hagie. Even with 1 cultivator, 160 acres is an easy day, 80 is a small task before noon. My only advice would be buy more iron then you need. If it doesn't get many hours, don't worry, the acres add up and you will be alot less frustrated when you can get everything done if there is a short window. I figure I would have given $30/acre to someone else for chemical and tech fee. I try to spend at least that much on equipment which I can put on my balance sheet and my labor which goes into my checking account. My thoughts
A.J. | |
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Organic crops, notill or work ground?
