dbltree
Super Moderator
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: TallTines</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Now i know corn and beans can be flipped around every year to help replace the nitrogen but how about other food plots.
What other food plots could I flip year to year to help keep some nitrogen in the ground and more money in my pocket? </div></div>
Excellent topic...something that I feel too many food plotters are missing out on!
I feel rotation is very important for a number of reasons including curtailing diseases problems.
Our thread on Cereal Grains and Cover Crops is meant to help explain the benefits of using green manure cover crops and understanding how to rotate crops to benefit from the nitrogen fixing abilities of legumes.
Basically we want to divide our plots into manageable sizes so when a clover plot begins to thin we can rotate to brassicas for instance.
We want to use legumes such as red clover, berseem clover, austrian winter peas, field peas and in some cases hairy vetch to produce upwards of 200 pounds of nitrogen per acre.
If you had brassicas in a plot last season, winter would have been an excellent time to frost seed red clover. Red clover is not the ideal food plot but it is an inexpensive clover seed that is easily seeded (frost or otherwise) and can be later plowed down to add humous and nitorgen as the nodules break down.
Soybeans actually only add 30-40 units of nitrogen per acre where as many other legumes such as peas and vetches can produce much higher levels.
I just encourage planting of smaller plots rather then one or two large ones, enabling you to have a number of different types of "crops" growing at different times and always have some type of legume growing that you can follow with a crop that can utilize the nitrogen left behind.
Cereal grains, corn, sorghum and brassicas all are heavy N users.
Some of the best corn I have ever raised was planted on plowed down alfalfa that had thinned after nearly 10 years!
We don't want to plow up a nice white clover stand but eventually they start to thin and white clover also produces a tremndous amount of nitrogen.
Plan to follow it with corn if you plant corn or plow it under in mid summer and plant brassicas, frost seed red clover into the brassicas or till them under and plant berseem clover, plow that under in late August to plant rye, wheat and oats, and red clover again or replant back to a white clover or alflafa stand.
Include field peas or austian winter peas with forage oats and berseem clover for example.
There are high quality red clovers that are bred for haying and grazing that are more expensive but there are also inexpensive plow down clovers and berseem clover that are under 2 bucks a pound for seed.
The possibles are endless and I'll try to keep mentioning the ones that I try to give you ideas. In almost every thread that I have posted in this spring about my own plantings...you will find various legumes mixed in every planting.
I'd love to hear from others who have tried other combinations as well. Yes...this is corn/bean country...but we can think outside the box! /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/cool.gif
Some examples of legume seed for plow downs:
Alta-Swede Mammoth Red Clover
Berseem Clover "King of Cover Crops"
Hairy Vetch
4010 Field Peas
Austrian Winter Peas
Hi-Nitro Plowdown Alfalfa
No-Sweet Plowdown Mix
Buckwheat Not a legume but a great weed inhibiting green manure, soil building plant.
What other food plots could I flip year to year to help keep some nitrogen in the ground and more money in my pocket? </div></div>
Excellent topic...something that I feel too many food plotters are missing out on!
I feel rotation is very important for a number of reasons including curtailing diseases problems.
Our thread on Cereal Grains and Cover Crops is meant to help explain the benefits of using green manure cover crops and understanding how to rotate crops to benefit from the nitrogen fixing abilities of legumes.
Basically we want to divide our plots into manageable sizes so when a clover plot begins to thin we can rotate to brassicas for instance.
We want to use legumes such as red clover, berseem clover, austrian winter peas, field peas and in some cases hairy vetch to produce upwards of 200 pounds of nitrogen per acre.
If you had brassicas in a plot last season, winter would have been an excellent time to frost seed red clover. Red clover is not the ideal food plot but it is an inexpensive clover seed that is easily seeded (frost or otherwise) and can be later plowed down to add humous and nitorgen as the nodules break down.
Soybeans actually only add 30-40 units of nitrogen per acre where as many other legumes such as peas and vetches can produce much higher levels.
I just encourage planting of smaller plots rather then one or two large ones, enabling you to have a number of different types of "crops" growing at different times and always have some type of legume growing that you can follow with a crop that can utilize the nitrogen left behind.
Cereal grains, corn, sorghum and brassicas all are heavy N users.
Some of the best corn I have ever raised was planted on plowed down alfalfa that had thinned after nearly 10 years!
We don't want to plow up a nice white clover stand but eventually they start to thin and white clover also produces a tremndous amount of nitrogen.
Plan to follow it with corn if you plant corn or plow it under in mid summer and plant brassicas, frost seed red clover into the brassicas or till them under and plant berseem clover, plow that under in late August to plant rye, wheat and oats, and red clover again or replant back to a white clover or alflafa stand.
Include field peas or austian winter peas with forage oats and berseem clover for example.
There are high quality red clovers that are bred for haying and grazing that are more expensive but there are also inexpensive plow down clovers and berseem clover that are under 2 bucks a pound for seed.
The possibles are endless and I'll try to keep mentioning the ones that I try to give you ideas. In almost every thread that I have posted in this spring about my own plantings...you will find various legumes mixed in every planting.
I'd love to hear from others who have tried other combinations as well. Yes...this is corn/bean country...but we can think outside the box! /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/cool.gif
Some examples of legume seed for plow downs:
Alta-Swede Mammoth Red Clover
Berseem Clover "King of Cover Crops"
Hairy Vetch
4010 Field Peas
Austrian Winter Peas
Hi-Nitro Plowdown Alfalfa
No-Sweet Plowdown Mix
Buckwheat Not a legume but a great weed inhibiting green manure, soil building plant.
Dbl,
You are the king of food plots! /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/cool.gif
That is a ton of excellent information there that should help tremendously.
Also i am planning on planting some brassicas, oats and rye this late summer early fall in different plots. Can i still plant some of these nitrogen producing plants like next weekend. I would like buckwheat if it is going to suppress weeds.
Thanks again!
You are the king of food plots! /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/cool.gif
That is a ton of excellent information there that should help tremendously.
Also i am planning on planting some brassicas, oats and rye this late summer early fall in different plots. Can i still plant some of these nitrogen producing plants like next weekend. I would like buckwheat if it is going to suppress weeds.
Thanks again!
dbltree
Super Moderator
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Also i am planning on planting some brassicas, oats and rye this late summer early fall in different plots. Can i still plant some of these nitrogen producing plants like next weekend. I would like buckwheat if it is going to suppress weeds.
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You could plant berseem clover right now and till it under at the end of summer for you other "crops"
This is a perfect time to plant buckwheat now that it has warmed up, it's just a great cover crop that is quick and easy to plant.
Plow it under just as it is starting to flower for best results. Only drawback is no nitrogen production... /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif
</div></div>
You could plant berseem clover right now and till it under at the end of summer for you other "crops"
This is a perfect time to plant buckwheat now that it has warmed up, it's just a great cover crop that is quick and easy to plant.
Plow it under just as it is starting to flower for best results. Only drawback is no nitrogen production... /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif