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bjrogg:
Still too wet to plant yet, but dry enough to spray.

I finished spraying the wheat. It needed it. Was very weedy.

Then I sprayed rye cover crop where we are going to plant soybeans. The rye is really growing and it’s time to terminate it.

Then I started spraying sugar beets. They are still very small but the rye cover crop they were planted into is growing and needs to be terminated. It should provide good wind protection now even after it dies.

Bjrogg

GlisGlis:
How do you terminate the rye? do you cut it and leave as mulch?

bjrogg:
I hope I can reply now. I meant to post some pictures my last reply but either something changed on the site or my phone and I wasn’t able to. It just showed my last reply in big print and no reply tab.

Where I’m going to plant soybeans yet I can either use tillage or herbicide . The tillage won’t completely kill it. It will slow it down a little and give the soybeans a chance until I can use herbicide later.

Where I used tillage previously to planting our sugar beets the rye I has grown back and it is completely taking over my sugar beets now. There I use herbicides. This is where modern methods work so well with old ones. This has always been one of the biggest challenges with using cover crops. They are very challenging to manage.

Normally I would have used tillage to knock the rye back before planting the soybeans but this rye is really growing fast now and it’s going to be a week before I can plant. We decided to spray now instead of tillage. The rye is getting so big it will plug up and make piles behind our tillage tools if we don’t.

Bjrogg

Here’s where the soybeans will go.  The rye has done its job. It’s scavenging nutrients, supporting microorganisms and protecting the soil from erosion while building organic matter. In a week or so hopefully it will be tilled and planted to soybeans and the residue will remain there to prevent wind and soil erosion.

bjrogg:
Seems like I can post again

The next picture is of our beet fields. These fields were tilled before planting. The rye has done its job here too. After applying herbicide the rye will die and the dead plants will continue to protect against wind erosion.

Bjrogg

bjrogg:
Here are the sugar beet plants. At this time they are still very small. Slow growing and susceptible to many things one being cut off by wind and dirt blowing. The old crop residue and rye residue ( we call it trash) will help protect them. They can’t compete with the living rye anymore though

Bjrogg

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