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Anyone doing No-till Organic w/ covers? I might go there.
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frytownfarmer
Posted 3/24/2018 09:39 (#6662063 - in reply to #6661944)
Subject: RE: Anyone doing No-till Organic w/ covers? I might go there.



Frytown, Iowa

I’ve done it 2 years now and bought a hiniker cultivator for this next year. First year I made 50 bu with a good stand and good August rains. This past year I made 30 bu. with poor stand, replant in June and almost zero rains in August. Just go experiment with it. I could tell you the things I’ve learned the past 2 years but you will remember them yourself better. Do 5 ac plots. I didn’t do that. Instead I tried the best I could on all 30 acres but could have learned so much more if I had done different things in the same year.

I tried notill organic corn last year on a half ac and it was a disaster. My goal is changing from “notill” to “no erosion” and if that means cleaning up weeds in late June with a hiniker cultivator in high residue then that’s the step I’m going in

Good luck. It’s very fun to experiment and see first hand why we do the things we do

Some things I would point you towards is early planting of your cover crops. Have an actual crimper lined up. Drill rye at 3 bu/ac. I forget quite what I drilled for hairy vetch but I think it was 40#/ac? I would throw some oats in the mix as well. "Here" the rye will be ready to crimp late May as in the last week of May. Plant or drill and roll. if your planting use the simplest attachments in order to get through the rye. at that stage of pollination the stem is hollow and will wrap very easily... planting through 2' high rye is WAY different than planting into pollinating rye. There will be lots of pollen flying around and can plug up your screens. Last year we had a really good wind the day before I planted and I had no problem. I had drilled the beans in on 7.5in at 200,000 pop but im going back to 30 in rows at 160-175,000 pop. Manure really helps the rye grow so its worth applying even if its ahead of soybeans

things im going to experiment this year with my organic soybeans is planting earlier so emergence is right before I crimp. Id like to get the beans started sooner. so planting dates is what im going to try different dates planting and see what works best. I had been planting at rye pollination and last year we had a flash drought and the seeds swelled then died. If I had planted sooner the root could have chased the moisture.

From what I seen with notill organic corn... because the vetch is a legume it grows very slow at first. You will hardly see any growth in April and early may but somehow by late may its all over the place. however because the grasses grow faster the vetch will not choke out the grasses and they will be there once the vetch gets crimped.

What Id like to do different is crimp the vetch 2xs at flower and if you crimp early you will send the vetch into flower early kind of like rolling soybeans will cause them to branch out more. After crimping the vetch I would like to run through with a hiniker cultivator where planning on planting... like a strip till... that will hopefully clean up the area where the corn will emerge and after the corn is up then run through with a hiniker once again between the rows... 

This year im probably setting myself up for a disaster as im going to notill my corn in to the bean stubble/rye stubble from last year and plan on my rows being close or on the manure injection strips. I will clean up the field with a hiniker cultivator later but so far there is still a very thick mat of residue im hoping will suppress weeds a little. I have no cover crops on this field.

As Ive had to tell myself over and over and over again the past couple years... "Its an experiment!"
The organic premiums have helped a lot with the lower yields



 



Edited by frytownfarmer 3/24/2018 10:43
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