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OK Panhandle | I don't recall that he did many summer cash crops. If he did, it was milo or some kind of feed for his cattle. He was mainly wheat and would keep the ground cultivated until fall. When he did the peas, though, they produced enough N for two years of 50bu+ wheat. This was back in the 1970s.
My dad and I have farmed some of his ground for a few years (not long enough to really have a handle on the weather patterns), and I've wanted to try a short season corn or milo planted in April and finishing the end of July. Seems like the last few years there are really good rains in the spring and early summer, then nothing once August hits. The beans around us looked incredible this year until the spigot shut off. I know a cover crop will grow out some moisture, but I'd speculate that if you terminate it soon enough, the spring rains will replenish what was lost. It doesn't seem like the soil there banks as much moisture as our clays do in the Panhandle, so I don't know if the moisture the peas use over winter would otherwise translate into moisture for the cash crop in the summer? Just speculation on my part.
It really is a different world just 2.5 hours east of the Panhandle. | |
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Winter Cover Crop Before Corn Question
