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Your thoughts for next year

K

Keef

Member
We're making changes for next year and I would like your thoughts. I have 166 acres, 30 acres is open the rest is hard woods with lots of oaks. We're doing TSI on 39 acres through a state program this winter.

In the front of the farm, we're changing from corn to native grasses and forbes (17 acres). I'm doing it to reduce erosion that runs off into my pond.

Behind this piece is 3 acres that I will plant in something next year. This is on a ridge top so it drains well. Don't know what yet.

Next is a road that leads further into the farm. I've planted oats and clover in it this fall.

The road leads to a 2 acre Ladino clover field. That will stay as is.

Further back in the woods is a 1 acre field that we just cleared this year. I planted oats and rye in it for this fall.

My questions - what would you plant in the front 3 acres, which is on a ridge top. (I'd prefer an annual)?

Also what would you plant in the last 1 acre which is on a hilltop? I'd like a perennial since it's hard to get to if we have a rainy spring. I'd like something besides clover since I have so much of it already.

Additional info, I put 3 tons of lime on all of the acreage this summer and just sent soil samples in to the local seed company for testing. Don't know what the soil tests.
I'd appreciate your recommendation
 
For that 3 acres I'd do one of two options...

1) Dbltree mix of 10% clover, 45% brassicas, 45% cereals. Provides year round food source in one area.

OR

2) All in soybeans and then broadcast winter rye between the rows sometime early September.
 
MNbuckhunter said:
For that 3 acres I'd do one of two options...

1) Dbltree mix of 10% clover, 45% brassicas, 45% cereals. Provides year round food source in one area.

OR

2) All in soybeans and then broadcast winter rye between the rows sometime early September.
Click to expand...


I know for our farm, which is very comparable to what you have described, we are going with option 2 here. We're leaving our Ladino Clover field alone and the rest is going to be in soybeans and broadcasting winter Rye in September.
 
You plant the brassicas in mid to late July, the winter rye in late august to early september and the perennials are better planted in the late summer so that you don't have to fight the weeds. I have had luck with planting perennials in the spring or early summer but then I just mow it frequently to keep the grasses down.
 
I would suggest leaving out the forbes on the 17 acres unless you are going with a government program. I put in 30 acres in CRP which consisted of native grasses and forbes. Within 3 years there was not a forbe in site because the grasses pretty much choked everything out. The forbes are very expensive. I would put those acres in switchgrass and have one heck of a deer/pheasant habitat.
 
Trerv33, thanks for the advice but you guessed right, it is a government program and I have to do it. We'll see how it goes. Did you do any burnoffs while you had the forbes? I have to mow it 3 times a year and burn it once every 3 years.
 
Keef,
I did a 100ft border (CP33) around the edge of all my timber and 2 waterways. I sprayed it with Plateau before I planted it. I mowed it 2 times the first year. The third year I did a controlled burn. The forbes looked good the first couple of years because the grasses were putting all their energy into the root system. By the third year the grasses took over and after the burn they really took off. That is when the forbes disappeared. Now I have a pure stand of native grasses. I now burn half of it every other year. 2 years ago I put in another 9 acres of pure switchgrass. This I did on my own. I won't get paid a annual payment from the government but I have full control of it.
 
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