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The Feed Crop, Grain, Forage and Soil Health Thread

Started by mike_belben, September 06, 2021, 04:24:28 PM

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newoodguy78

Mudfarmer your produce looks great. Keep up the good work. 

mike_belben

dave brandt is the guy youll likely see holding 3ft daikon radishes if you google them. seeds with a corn planter on 4 inch spacing with winter pea in between the radish rows to feed the radish nitrogen needs.  he says they actually lift dirt. these things are about 3" diameter.

terminates with a roller and no herbicide then plants the corn right into the radish row because he has found that the radish tillage produces avg 2° warmer and about 2% dryer soil than the row of peas.

he mentioned buckwheat as a summer cover for its ability to strip phosphorus from rocks and i looked into it. SARE says buckwheat secretes amino acids that unlock phosphorus, 10x more than barley and 3x more than rye.  its good to plant after forest clearing so i have a sack in the shed for this coming season.

https://www.sare.org/publications/managing-cover-crops-profitably/nonlegume-cover-crops/buckwheat/#:~:text=Phosphorus%20scavenger.,release%20nutrients%20from%20the%20soil.
Praise The Lord

mudfarmer

Thanks! It is working so we will keep it up and expand until (more) uncomfortable and then dial back to our sweet spot. Almost 1/4 acre this year between two plots, plus 10x20 kitchen garden and 2x isolated 8x8 raised beds for seed production. We will hit 1/2 acre on three plots next year and suspect it will be a bit too much without help or giving up some other things. Ebb and flow, go where the wind takes us. Or maybe a 1/4 acre of spuds. We are historic potato ground (well not our place), was a starch mill on the river a mile away. Nothing like what swampdonkey talks about up there though! They do pretty well here and I put in a lot this year.

newoodguy78

Doing what you can manage and manage well while pushing the limits a bit in my opinion is the spot to be at in agriculture. Getting into more than you Can manage is a downward vacuum and potentially a mental, physical and financially draining experience. Every situation is different everywhere you go. Again nice work and keep at it 👍

Firewoodjoe

Well I just checked my sorghum and that one patch is still green and juicy! After multiple frost it's all dry brown except that. You guys that know about sorghum do you think I'd be safe if I just cut that patch down and through it out of the pasture? Then the cows would be on just dry dead stuff. 

newoodguy78

Wish I could help you out, my mind is saying it would be okay. However please don't do it based solely on that.  I'll bet with a couple pictures Southside could give some good advice. He's got real world experience with it and a bunch of it to boot. 

Firewoodjoe

I don't think he needs pictures. It's green in color and when bent over your finger foamy juice runs out. I just don't know if the prussic acid is released even though it's still wet. 

Firewoodjoe

Well I couldn't take it. I went out with a saw and cut down the bad spots. Hopefully that speeds it up a bunch.

 


Southside

That picture dosen't scare me at all. Do you have a hay mower? If so and you aren't comfortable then knock it down, wait three days and it will be fine. 
Franklin buncher and skidder
JD Processor
Woodmizer LT Super 70 and LT35 sawmill, KD250 kiln, BMS 250 sharpener and setter
Riehl Edger
Woodmaster 725 and 4000 planner and moulder
Enough cows to ensure there is no spare time.
White Oak Meadows

Firewoodjoe

Quote from: Southside on November 20, 2021, 06:12:25 PM
That picture dosen't scare me at all. Do you have a hay mower? If so and you aren't comfortable then knock it down, wait three days and it will be fine.
Which one? The top picture you can seen one of the green patches I cut down. The bottom is the green area. 99% of it doesn't scare me either. So your saying if I cut the green stuff 3 days is sufficient for it to dry down and be safe for them to graze? I really need to move them by this coming weekend. I have a heifer to sort off and a steer to butcher so I need the third pasture space. Farming 🤦‍♂️ 😂 

Southside

Neither picture, and yes, mow it, give it three days and any prussic acid will  be gone. 
Franklin buncher and skidder
JD Processor
Woodmizer LT Super 70 and LT35 sawmill, KD250 kiln, BMS 250 sharpener and setter
Riehl Edger
Woodmaster 725 and 4000 planner and moulder
Enough cows to ensure there is no spare time.
White Oak Meadows

Firewoodjoe

I'm not mowing the field. I'm not set up for that. It's set up for grazing. I cut the green patches with a chainsaw lol

mike_belben

saw a 5ft seed drill in the parking lot at rural king so i took a look.  $3k and its already broken.  these should hold up in the sun for a decade right?  our vacuum cleaner uses tougher hoses. 






have learned a lot more the past week or two but not had to time to paraphrase it.  "rhizophagy cycle" unlocks the secret to about 30% of plant growth.  the plant roots actually suck bacterial cells into them and excrete them back out continually.
Praise The Lord

Nebraska

Several drills on Craigslist  around here for a third of that. They were built in the 40's and 50's  they will still get the job done, that new one looks like   far east junk. 

newoodguy78

Those old drills are out there and very often need very little to be put into service.

mike_belben

Got a surprise in the mail other day.  A mint 50th anniversary edition.  An heirloom. 

 








Roxie, I am truly honored and grateful to have Cowboy Bobs book.  Thank you so much. 

Praise The Lord

newoodguy78

I'm not familiar with that book but I'm certain it's full of valuable information based on the print date alone. I've read some of the old farming books, there's incredibly valuable knowledge in a lot of them 

mike_belben

It appears we got really off track due to surplus grain with no market post ww2.  Start feeding it to the cows and their omega 3 to omega 6 fatty acid ratio goes haywire.. Cancer and heart disease explode, etc.   Why should a dairy manage hundreds of acres of pasture when it can make a mint selling the pasture to corn and soy conglomerate then buy cheap corn and soy to feed right there in place?  

Hydrogenated seed oils ("vegetable oil") and continual tillage are also very very much part of the total national health epidemic.  If we were healthy, covid woulda been nothing.  Virus appears to be the activator of chronic disease.  It will only get larger from here.  

You wanna be rich?  Get a refractometer and market the nutrient density of your produce.  If its dense organic food and you can prove it, you can name your price because it isnt available anywhere and getting it is life and death for the growing sick masses. 

I believe some day the insurance company will be willing to pay for proven nutrient dense meal prep plans because it will be cheaper and more effective than paying for continually failing treatments, procedures and meds. Theyll make a lot more money collecting premiums on healing people than slowly dying ones. 
Praise The Lord

Nebraska


mike_belben

is there any part of the country where its common to see cattle overwinter on a cover crop mix?  

all our pasture grass is getting pretty rank here but winter covers are looking fantastic in my yard and a few abandoned crop fields that probably just got lease agreements and were seeded this fall.  

is there some reason i cant figure out why producers dont broadcast seed a summer paddock before letting the cows graze it down and stamp the seed in.. then rotate them off that until its ready as a winter paddock?   will it not work?  
Praise The Lord

newoodguy78

I've never done it but see no reason it wouldn't work. I've thought about doing it here. We have plenty of land so getting the seedings in in time for them to establish well wouldn't be a problem. If someone was farming all their land all the time, getting the crops off in time to get a second crop (covers) established well enough to be able to graze could be a problem. 

newoodguy78

Was thinking about this I believe Southside and Firewoodjoe are doing this sort of thing. There in two totally different climates. Their perspectives would be interesting to hear. 

Southside

Just have a moment and will get back later, but yes it's done, it's not as easy as it appears but well worth the effort.  We run a lot of summer and winter annuals for this purpose but still need to feed some stored forage.  Rainfall, temperature, sod vs tilled ground all come into play. 

Hay and Forage Grower magazine might be of interest to guys.  It's free, a lot of conventional info, but more and more regenerative articles in there.  Even had Gregg Judy last month.  
Franklin buncher and skidder
JD Processor
Woodmizer LT Super 70 and LT35 sawmill, KD250 kiln, BMS 250 sharpener and setter
Riehl Edger
Woodmaster 725 and 4000 planner and moulder
Enough cows to ensure there is no spare time.
White Oak Meadows

Nebraska

Its done out here commonly with rye(+/- brasicas, turnips etc). It is flown on with crops in the field mid ish August start, or drilled right behind soybean harvest best if its an earlier maturing soybean type. Mostly used here as a bridge to grass in the spring. Good place to turn out new cow calf pairs. The cows are all mostly out grazing corn stalk residue now that gets dependant on snow cover. A few folks starting to calve now.




Southside

Franklin buncher and skidder
JD Processor
Woodmizer LT Super 70 and LT35 sawmill, KD250 kiln, BMS 250 sharpener and setter
Riehl Edger
Woodmaster 725 and 4000 planner and moulder
Enough cows to ensure there is no spare time.
White Oak Meadows

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