The Feed Crop, Grain, Forage and Soil Health Thread

[Southside]

Funny, I bought seed to plant Reed Canary because it has such a long root system.

[Walnut Beast]

I could have sent you some of those seeds 😂😂

[newoodguy78]

I know a bunch of guys that grew it for forage. It's since been declared an invasive in this state and you can no longer buy it. 

[Walnut Beast]

Talked to the weed control guy and he said there are guys out there around here using drones to spray to get into hard to reach places

[Southside]

But I bet you can get K31 Fescue. 

[newoodguy78]

 

 
Steaming tobacco. You know it's been a dry year when you see this. Usually they'll have to use some heat to get it right for marketing, not this season. 

[Southside]

Not smoke curing? 

[newoodguy78]

I've heard of smoke curing tobacco. That I know of its not a practice that's used around here.
Never realized until recently how delicate the tobacco crop is, conditions have to be just right or it's damaged simply handling it.
All the tobacco producers around are smiling they had a real good year. I'm glad to see it. Amazingly labor intensive fickle crop to produce.

[wisconsitom]

Note on reed canary grass versus giant reed:
Reed canary grass and giant reed, aka Phragmites;  2 different plants.  Both have forms native to N.America but which have been taken over by more vigorous Eurasian forms, resulting in species with strongly invasive tendencies here.  Reed canary grass equates to "marsh hay" in old school farmer parlance around here.  No friend to the forest, vast areas which once supported wet-tolerant forest types are now just RCG.  Trees don't get started in that stuff.

Phragmites goes down into wetter areas.  There, it crowds out all other vegetation.

Both plants are largely problems in N. America.

[Southside]

One man's problem is another's solution. 

[Nebraska]

Ss, You have a use for Phragmites??   I utilize a little Reed Canarary for both hay and grazing.  Not the best grass but was better than no grass this year.

[Southside]

Absolutely, we go from bone dry to so wet you can't walk in some areas, then back to dry.  Anything that can stand being submerged in that low ground, and keep growing when the ground gets hard is my summer salvation. 

For the past two years I have tried to buy Reed seed but it's pretty much been unavailable due to the drought in the upper Midwest where it's harvested for seed. 

[dairyguy]

Note on reed canary grass versus giant reed:
Reed canary grass and giant reed, aka Phragmites;  2 different plants.  Both have forms native to N.America but which have been taken over by more vigorous Eurasian forms, resulting in species with strongly invasive tendencies here.  Reed canary grass equates to "marsh hay" in old school farmer parlance around here.  No friend to the forest, vast areas which once supported wet-tolerant forest types are now just RCG.  Trees don't get started in that stuff.

Reeds Canary grass is not shade tolerant.  So if it is creeping onto your ground you didnt have much for forest anyway.   But if you have cows it is an amazing grass.   It will grow out there with the cat tails and endures well during drought on that makes rock hard cracked clay.

[wisconsitom]

The RCG moves in after a disturbance of some kind, then holds the spot.

This is nothing to argue about;. Numerous examples can be seen, by my eyes or yours.

[newoodguy78]

Note on reed canary grass versus giant reed:
Reed canary grass and giant reed, aka Phragmites;  2 different plants.  Both have forms native to N.America but which have been taken over by more vigorous Eurasian forms, resulting in species with strongly invasive tendencies here.  Reed canary grass equates to "marsh hay" in old school farmer parlance around here.  No friend to the forest, vast areas which once supported wet-tolerant forest types are now just RCG.  Trees don't get started in that stuff.

Reeds Canary grass is not shade tolerant.  So if it is creeping onto your ground you didnt have much for forest anyway.   But if you have cows it is an amazing grass.   It will grow out there with the cat tails and endures well during drought on that makes rock hard cracked clay.

@dairyguy are you using it for feed? If so are you drying it or putting it up as a silage. I can remember cutting some in the past that was essentially on a river bottom flood plain piece that stayed wet until august, we ended up using it as bedding simply because you couldn't get on it before it was gone by. Used to call it elephant grass, it got so big an elephant could walk in there and not be seen. The yields were incredible. The root mass was impressive as well.

[dairyguy]

Reeds Canary grass is not shade tolerant.  So if it is creeping onto your ground you didnt have much for forest anyway.   But if you have cows it is an amazing grass.   It will grow out there with the cat tails and endures well during drought on that makes rock hard cracked clay.

@dairyguy are you using it for feed? If so are you drying it or putting it up as a silage. I can remember cutting some in the past that was essentially on a river bottom flood plain piece that stayed wet until august, we ended up using it as bedding simply because you couldn't get on it before it was gone by. Used to call it elephant grass, it got so big an elephant could walk in there and not be seen. The yields were incredible. The root mass was impressive as well.

I am not set up to grow rice so RC grass it is.    By the time mid summer rolls around it is so mature and dead-ish & dry it has to be hay.   It is not as absorbent as straw but keeps the calves high, dry, and warm from Thanksgiving thru mud season.    

For us it has a great mineral profile for feeding dry cows.   So use it as a niche feed and for bedding.    It is nice to have a spot to spread on too.

[chevytaHOE5674]

RCG has it place. I graze cows on lots of it in wetter parts of the pastures, also run the green chopper over some and feed it out. When the weather works out I love to make a June cutting of dry hay or balage of it as it is good feed and good tonnage per acre. It also grows back nicely for a 2nd cutting/grazing.

When baled late in the season I run the chopper in the baler then use it as bedding mainly.

[Greentree]

I had a similar issue on my small farm where I needed to balance various aspects of farming without overlapping them too much. The solution I found was exploring smart farming solutions. I stumbled upon https://thingsboard.io/smart-farming/, and it was a game changer for me.

This platform streamlined my farming operations by enabling efficient data collection from IoT devices and sensors. This helped in monitoring crop growth, humidity levels, and more. The most helpful feature for me was the powerful rule engine that processed this data, offering valuable insights and alerts. It helped in optimizing resource consumption and decision-making.

[jeeper9574]

Dragging up this thread since it contains so much good information and this seems to fit in. 

Several of our hay fields are being taken over by the invasive smooth bedstraw. I have read a few publications from Maine and NH cooperative extensions on how to control this, but looking to hear if anyone has personal experience. 

Since the fields have not been re-seeded in many years, our thought is to control this by tilling rather than the chemical route so that we can re-seed as well. We kept the fields mowed pretty well this year and didn't really let it flower. Our plan is as follows: 
1. Soil test now and add lime as needed this fall.
2. Plough in the spring followed by a period of bare fallow to kill the perennial plant.
3. Plant a buckwheat or other cover crop to smother any seedlings that emerge. (Buckwheat seems like a good option but sounds like it is pretty quick turn around. Would this need to be done multiple times?)
4. Disc in the buckwheat and plant a timothy hay seed mix next fall.

We are planning to rotate our fields doing this so we can still provide some hay for the year. We have some beef cows and sell some hay locally, mostly for horses. Does anyone have any experience or recommendations? Don't really have any experience using cover crops or doing this type of control so any input is welcome. 

[Southside]

So if it were my field I would roll out hay this winter and feed my cows on it. Spread the hay across as much of the field as possible. This will spread manure and urine over a lot of area. Whatever the cows don't eat will become organic matter for the soil and will feed the microbes. 

Come spring I would drill in a cool season mix of wheat, rye, barley and any other annual,  cool season you can get cheap. Rotationally graze that until it peters out then drill in a warm season mix cover crop of millett, sunflower, peas or soybeans, some sort of sorghum and Susan grass, myself I LOVE my improved crabgrass for forage. Rotationally graze that until this time next year and see what your perennial grasses are doing. My bet is you will be very pleased with the results.

The absolute last thing I would do is disc ground I plan to pasture, that will invite every weed from 20 miles to move in. 

[Magicman]

I am an advocate of a subsoiler.  That way every drop of rain that hits the ground goes in rather than runoff.

[jeeper9574]

Thanks Southside, appreciate the response. 

That is an interesting approach. So the idea is to supplement the ground this winter, then using those cover crops to crowd out the smooth bedstraw while giving the perennial grasses a better hold? I may try this in the fields I pasture which consequently don't seem to have as much bedstraw in it. That would be a good approach to continue using it as pasture while improving things.

We do have a 4.5 acre field that is only for hay and not able to pasture due to location and no perimeter fencing. Any thoughts on my plan above for this situation?

Thanks Magicman. We have pretty good ground here, we are in a valley with a nice layer of topsoil over gravel with some clays usually around 3' down. Bedrock is relatively shallow in areas. We also have our share of rocks but nothing like thecfarm has!

This is a pretty small family farm, mostly to raise our own meat and sell a little to try and recoup some costs. We have around 18 acres of mixture of pasture and hay fields. 

[Magicman]

I forget about soil composition so what works for me may/will not work for other parts of the country.  There is nothing but topsoil over subsoil (clayish) here. 

[Southside]

I agree with MM on the subsoiler. You have compaction there no matter what the soil composition is. It will break up the fragipan and allow water and oxygen into the soil while increasing tilth. 

As far as the hay field goes I would drill red and white clover now. What is growing there at the moment?  Cereal rye makes for a great early hay. The potential downside is that spring isn't good dry hay making weather. That's a great opportunity to put up wrapped baleage. We don't do any dry hay these days, it's all wrapped baleage, the feed value blows away dry hay and you don't really have to worry about the weather. 

[Magicman]

I am small time and only doing Deer Food Plots but:



I only have a single tooth and move over about 18" with each pass.  As you can see, when it's dry, it really tears the ground up making the disc job much easier.

We have gotten some moisture this year so there were no clods/clumps this past Saturday as seen above.