Life on the Farm

[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

[bjrogg]

Here’s another picture for Bob

Bjrogg

[GlisGlis]

Are herbicides so specific that they kill rye and dont adversely affect soybeens or beet growth?
Sorry if my questions are so basic but I have big lack of knowledge and I find this thread really interesting

[bjrogg]

Good question Glis.

This is really where modern technology make these cover crops work.

In the past this was a huge problem. We had to use tillage to terminate the rye. A lot of it. The rye still didn’t completely die and became a weed. If we did enough tillage to kill it, there was no (trash ) left for wind protection.

Modern (here’s that bad word GMO’s) have allowed us to plant right into growing cover crops and then spray them. Killing the cover and leaving its trash on top to still give protection from the wind.

I’m not against GMO’s . They are very beneficial. They have many different types.

Some allow the crop to be resistant to a chemical. Some allow the crop to be resistant to a bug making it so we don’t have to use an insecticide.

Some protect crop from disease and allow us to not have to spray a fungicide.

I really believe they are good for the environment and have prevented literally tons chemicals from being used.

Bjrogg

[chamookman]

Thanks BJ ! Was She in that close, or is it just the Pic ? Bob

[bjrogg]

Thanks BJ ! Was She in that close, or is it just the Pic ? Bob

I would say she was in pretty close.

It always looks closer looking from my field than from the beach. She looks pretty close though.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Hopefully start planting my sons corn today. I got some more stuff ready for planting yesterday then looked for asparagus. It was just starting to come up. Made a great Mother’s Day gift for my wife. I have picked her wild flowers before and she said they were stinky and threw them out. She never complains about the asparagus and she never throws it out. We both love it.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Then my youngest son and I worked at firewood and burning our brush pile. Might be last chance we get to work at it this spring and I was glad to get to mess cleaned up before the grass got tall.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

By dark it was all burnt up.
Bjrogg

[M2A]

Good to see your beets are up. Heck of a nice looking stand of rye, trash from that ought to serve you well.

Next week looks like some good weather here for things to start growing well. Tomatoes and peppers just about ready to be transplanted and strawberries started blooming this week.
Mike   

[bjrogg]

Thanks Mike hope you have a great growing season too.

I started planting my sons corn Saturday. Planted his field to the south where it didn’t rain as much. Then a couple small ones around his barn . The rest of his fields weren’t quite dry enough and we took yesterday Mother’s Day.

Hopefully we can plant some more today. We actually had a white frost this morning. Was hoping we were done with those . Might get my apple blossoms.

Bjrogg