Bowsite.com

got 12 tons of chicken litter delivered an plowed it in. then planted the 3 acre filed with round up ready corn with my 2 JD 7100 planter -38" row's

think I will need anymore Nitorgen ?

going to plant my other filed this week.

that the way my planter came. it may actually be 40" rows.

How far apart should I be planting them ?

your neighbors also have corn fields, and so do their neighbors, and their neighbors, Etc..

won't be another corn field with in 30 miles of these plots - and they are well off the beaten path.

also the corn is round up Ready.

all the corn will be left standing for the wildlife - its sole purpose is for wildlife attraction.

Maybe I need to start recycling my dogs messes in my yard? :)

Hopefully I will putting in my corn & beans in the next couple of weeks!

my 7100 has "cotton closing wheels" on it. probably was set up to run straight cotton before it got cut down to a 2 row.

chicken Litter here is fairly easy to get and runs about $100-$150 a truck (12tons) and they spread it. not sure how much nitrogen is actually in it, but they say it builds "high organic matter"

as far as the grazing pressure. I will have Clay and iron peas and in my other fields as well as 1 acre of ladino clover against the field edge where the corn is planted to try and keep the deer off the corn - I trap coons when ever legal - but you can never catch enough.

I recommend to people NO traits or if they insist on roundup ready, to use a non stack variety, containing no bt gene, root worm etc etc. I prefer leafy genetics with softer kernels. They might be lower test weight but they also tend to be higher in sugar. The deer prefer them and they get more use out of that corn consummed.

I also am dabbling with Cannamaize. I have a reason for this....

So, worried about weeds? Lay down a preemerge application of parrallel (dual) and atrazine but if your in an atrazine restricted area, use simizine. There are other options as well, and for many people, i wonder why preemerge isnt done more.

I actually would go wide row corn and spray early with glyphosate if its roundup corn, then broadcast berseem clover, crimson, med red clover or mammoth a couple weeks later. It would fixate nitrogen and set up your plots for next year ala PLOT ROTATION.

http://www.jungseedgenetics.com/Pages/HomePage.aspx They have the HDS corns which tend to have a softer kernel and with leafier genetics. They have some conventionals and less traits.

http://www.legendseeds.net/ legends is a group of farmers who started their own company. They also sell the cannamaize. They have many convention hybrids. Shhhhh, word on the street is they are coming out with a unique corn next year that will be a great deer option. I might happen to know someone who will plant some of this more "floury" corn and will be able to give you all an unbiased opinion.

http://www.wolfrivervalleyseeds.com/seed-catalog/silage-corn/ i have planted theirs as well and i like the 3396 and 2702 varieties.

http://seedcorn.com/95-104-day-hybrids/ masterschoice has a hybrid that should work great, the mc5250 if you can manage a 102 day corn.

Many waxy and high oil corns would be options as they typically dont dry down as fast and have a higher energy content.

However, I am a tightwad & I usually get plenty of food plot corn for free every year from the Co-op or seed corn guys. They always have plot bags from the previous year that they need to get rid of anyway. The germination rate on this corn is usually very close to the previous year's. Plus, I am using an old planter to plant it with so I'm sure my stand isn't as good as it would be with new equipment, but it is purely a hobby. (An expensive one, but still a hobby!)

I used to plant year old beans but not anymore. I was very surprised at how much the germination rate drops on the old beans. Plus beans are much cheaper to buy than corn.

But so many of these seed companies want to add traits now days. How else can one make more per bag for one's seed?? Corn is developed for the grain markets and not the animal markets. Heck, i'm sure there is some great open pollinated corn out there that the deer would go crazy for that we can find for around $100 a bag or less.

So, anyone out there plan cannamaize before?

Another option is a product i sell tons of thats called plot restore. It is a blend of berseem clover and daikon radish. I love when i get calls in february from clients, saying how many deer are in those plots.

Time and place for chemicals. Yes, i helped bring generic glyphosate into the US and also had a chemical buying group but there one can really reduce herbicide use if you get your soils right, work the ground properly and time your plantings.

Plus there is some "NATURAL WEED KILLERS" ....which work very well and i discuss when i do my wildlife seminars.

And there is "NATURAL WEED INHIBITORS" which are in some common forages that we plant. Which is some of my research is focusing on....

that is a pretty good idea. and you got me to thinking.

what if I spray the post emerge round up when the plants are about 12" tall, then come back with my tractor and planter and plant clay and iron peas between the rows with my planter?

how do you think that would work ?

we usually don't have to many moisture problems in MS, we usually get regular rains.

When you fertilize are you applying it all at once just before planting or do you split your fertilizer application? I'm thinking of splitting my application because of my sandy soil. If you split your application when or at what stage do you apply your second application of Urea?

Some of my clients plant the soybeans in rows with the corn and it climbs up the corn stalk. To do this when there is weed pressure, one needs to put down your herbicide preemergence.

Pat's idea is one we are implementing on the farm. We are planting 2 acres of cannamaize and putting eagle beans in one of the hoppers, so there will be 3 rows of corn and one of soy and then 3 corn and 1 soy.

Also the University of Wisconsin is doing some trials using clover as a "living mulch" interseeded with corn.

http://cornandsoybeandigest.com/fertilizer/nitrogen-application-timing-effect-corn-yield

I see you recommended overseeding clover into corn as part of preparing for crop rotation. Are you planting corn on corn and does the clover work as the crop rotation?

I plan on rotating my corn with soybeans. I was planning on overseeding my corn with WR and GHFR to help build soil OM and also overseed my soybeans with Medium Red to build nitrogen credits for next years corn. Both the clover and WR would be terminated at the following years planting.

Here is a nice article from MSU.

http://www.covercrops.msu.edu/systems/corn.html

I plant a deercreek seed product called plot restore in early may and then disc it down in late june for my beets and sweets, and then some of it in early august for my fall rye, barley and brassica mixes.

I love having grains like winter oats, winter triticale, winter rye, forage winter wheat or winter barley planted in the fall, and i love putting them where i would like to shoot a mature buck near the woods edges.

I love my berseem clover/radish mix (plot restore) because it fixates a large amount of nitrogen, suppressed weed growth, scavenged nutrients and loosens the soil up.

I also plan on broadcasting some winfred brassica and another new brassica i'm bringing over from New Zealand to experiment with , around august 1, in row.

So, say a deer ate 1 pound of popcorn that normally would have 90 MCal of energy per 100 but only is 65 percent digestible invitro. The animal would get less net digestible energy than if you fed or had the deer eat good quality alfalfa, clovers or brassicas. Plus, you would be getting digestible fiber, increased mineral content and protein out of those products.

This is why when someone asks me to formulate a deer feed for them, that i limit the pellet or texturized feed to 15% or so from corn.

I still don't get why people want to feed higher amounts of corn to deer or focus so much energy on planting corn for deer. Note , i believe it is ok planting corn, but the right type of corn that is able to be broken down. I also want, multiple sources of digestible fibers which would actually "HELP CAPTURE" and "Lay a fiber mat down", to allow whatever corn consumed to stay in the system longer, which in turn would have less of that popcorn or new generation corn, going right out the back end.

But, i guess that is actually ok, so that people's turkeys have something to eat as they pick through it.

I am just planted some corn so I can stick a freaking deer and watch them on my property, and because I love watching the plot grow

I can feed the deer on my place Grade A - Prime - #1 feed and all he is going to is live 5-7 years and die, if he doesn't get ran over or shot as a 2 year old.

I think some of yall feed your deer better than you do yourself.

I guess you can get as technical as you want - but for me regular old corn seems to do the trick.

:-)

My farm is in west central Minnesota and our growing season is relatively short compared to most of the country. Because of this cover crops like clover often do not have allot of time to grow before they are terminated for the following years annual crop. My goal is to build OM and provide nitrogen credits and I plan to seed Medium Red clover into my soybeans in the fall so they get established and provide as much growth/nitrogen the following year. I also plan on seeding a test area in my soybeans in early summer to see if they will survive the shade from the soybeans.

What do you think of my approach, would clover seeded in early summer survive and is there a better way/mix to obtain nitrogen credits?