SUMMARY OF 2018 COVER CROP EXPERIENCE: (the details are below this summary) -- The property history is: farmed conventionally from ~1900 through 1986. CRP from 1986 through 2013. 2014 field seeded to spring barley. 2015 seeded to 5 & 9 cultivar cover crop. 2016 seeded to winter wheat. 2017 seeded to spring canola. 2018 seeded to 5 cultivar cover crop.
The cover crop (~75ac) was the first seeded for the year, with (~ 10ac) seeded last, after the cash crops. All the cover crop cultivars had a high emergence rate with a good to excellent stand on poor as well as good soil. The amount of biomass grown represented the type of ground under it. 10#N placed with the seed would have paid big dividends in the poor soil areas. We did an early takeout this year instead of letting it go to maturity. The hope was that we could maximize the N retention and minimize water loss. We took soil tests from our normal fallow area as well as on the cover crop area. As usual they are a source of frustration. Inconsistent, What? that's not right! how can that be?! The only consistent element is the use of 3" moisture to grow the CC. I'm disappointed in this because our early takeout should have resulted in less moisture use by the CC. Well, it's just one piece of data in a short list of try's. I can see that I should be taking these tests myself. Even though I have a competent person pulling these tests, I can't be sure they are taken consistently in the same place time after time, and without that knowledge it's difficult for me to analyze the results. (Most of this summary was posted to the Cover Crop Page.)
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4/15/18?? --Seeded ~75ac field with 5 cultivar cover crop. Two cultivars of large seed (forage pea, forage oats), and 3 cultivars of small seed (white dutch clover, daikon radish, pardenni lentil).
5/12/18?? --Seeded ~ 5ac with remaining 5 cultivar cover crop all mixed together. Earlier seeding was separated by size with large seed on 20" row's and small seeds between the large seed rows. We had great emergence of the early seeded cultivars, including the Dutch White Clover.
7/7/18 --We started the takeout process for the 5 cultivar (forage oat, forage pea, daikon radish, small lentil, white dutch clover) cover crop. The intent this year was to takeout at the height of N production (early pod setting). We were a little late (~1-1.5wks). Currently the peas and lentils and radish have finished bloom and well into pod/seed development. The clover has some blooms. The forage oats has headed and have some seed in the milk. East of the ditch, the planting is ~3wks later and takeout is probably 1-1.5wks too early. We should have added some N (~10#). I think it would have resulted in significant more biomass. As it is, we have some areas with good height and color, and others are shorter, and yellowish in color. Many of the areas without complete canopy have Russian Thistle and Skeleton Weed competing with the covers.
The late seeded cover mix, which was all mixed together and seeded out at the same depth as the canola at Thornton showed difference in emergence between cultivars. The radish was the only indicator that the small seed mix was fairly well distributed throughout the large seed mix. The White Dutch Clover did not emerge well. The other four cultivars emerged well. Radish, because of it's early bolt and flowering, is a good indicator of field distribution of the seed mix. What we have learned at this point from three years experience is that radish will likely emerge if held to around 1.5" depth.
We have an interest in four types of takeout processes. We hope to find one that will leave our White Dutch Clover and take out the remainder.
Because of logistics issues we were not able to try a crimper. We would like to have tried that method although we are skeptical that it would work with our cultivars or terrain.
We sprayed ~20ac (one swath west of the ditch, and all the cover on the east side of the ditch) with a mix of 2-4D and Rt3 left over from the bordering chem fall field.
We used the 26' Shulte mower on ~20ac, --mostly on the upper west side with wide headlands on the north and south borders. At a distance the mowed area looks pretty good; however, close inspection shows cultivars missed. We'll see if the forage oats become a contaminate in next years fall wheat.
On the 9th we sprayed one quart per acre of paraquat and 2qt/100g of Outrigger with 20gpa total solution on the remaining field and over some of the mowed ground.
8/14/18-- The cover crop takeout methods were evaluated. The Roundup and Gromoxone applications look pretty good; however, the mowed area has recovered with the skeleton weed showing a lot of bloom. We applied Gromoxone to the mowed ground to stop the Skeleton weed bloom.
9/20/18--Some recovery of Rush Skeleton Weed, and it was flowering and some matured. It appears that the Gromoxone is the best takeout method. It burned everything down fast and the Rush Skeleton Weed was very slow to recover. The Glyphosate was too slow in burn down allowing the target plants to continue competing for 4-6 days longer than the Gromoxone.
We did not make a Glyphosate application prior to seeding our winter wheat. There were few Russian thistles present and no grass weeds observed. There was a significant amount of Rush Skeleton weed present. I'm not sure whether we are making any headway in controlling that pest(Rush Skeleton weed). It's not suppose to compete well with a growing crop; however, this piece of ground with shallow soil and heavy population, may be an exception.
11/21/18 --Evaluated winter wheat seeded into the cover crop ground. The wheat was seeded during the 3rd wk of September into dry conditions. We received sufficient moisture the 4th wk of October to germinate the winter wheat, but by then the weather was quite cool with freezing nights and near freezing days. The winter wheat has mostly emerged (~95%) but very small, ranging from spike to a few two leaves.
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