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southern MN | I plant 5-10 acres of oats next to about 30 acres of corn. Fence it all for the cows in fall/winter.
When I plant the oats, I put some peas in with the oats.
In the grass seeder, I put some plowdown blend (no-name alfalfa and red clover, maybe some sweet clover) and some purple top turnips.
This all gets planted at oats time, as soon as it goes in spring.
I swath and combine the oats. Cut a few peas and turnip tops off, peas might be about ripe, actually get a few in the bin.
Rake and bale the straw.
Typically (not the last 2 years) the blow-over oats sprouts and grows, so by the end of August I have a mix of big turnips, clover/alfalfa, and oats regrowth that can be fenced and grazed, or wait untilt he corn is harvested and fence the entire field of oats stubble and stalks and let them out.
They love the turnips, clean up the ears of corn, then the turnips, then graze anything green out of the oats stubble.
This is not the way they tell us to plant turnips, but it works for me.
The past 2 years have been so dry, nothing grows after the oats if off, nothing gets reseeded, this year even the clover & alfalfa was barely noticable. The turnips did well, they keep growing. Turnips do not like wet feet, so my field actually struggles on wet years, it's a little low. They react like the tillage radish, in that they suck up nutrients, the more fertile the ground the more they grow.
(Don't plant tillage radishes early like this. They go to seed when planted too early......)
I realize this doesn't fit the typical corn/bean rotation, but that 5-10 acres does pretty good for me with the multiple avenues of harvesting. 80-100 bu oats, straw, The peas seem seem to add N to the oats about the time it is setting seed. The alfalfa adds some N to the ground, or it helps with the grazing, or a bit of both. The turnips make happy slobbering cattle. I don't fertilize this small field for oats, so it's low-input.
This year as I say, so dry only the turnips survived.
I planted another field to oats where I was putting tile; some leftover turnip seed fell in that peat ground, as dry as it got those turnip got huge, for fun this November wife and I gathered a few every other day to throw at the cattle, that where the Ranger-load comes from.
--->Paul
 (turn02.jpg)
 (turnipspolaris.jpg)
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Grazing cover crops
