The rain has returned. The weather service predicts snow. It is not cold enough to replant rye, according to what I have read. Rye needs several days with temps below 34 degrees F to vernalize. This might not be a problem with the upcoming cold trend, but I also have to be able to drive on the ground to replant. I can see plants but the the population doesn't look good. I just need a few thousand pounds for the whiskey guy next door but with a now plant population I suspect it will be pretty weedy.
Yesterday I looked for crop rotations which would add organic matter and might lend themselves to no-till. A friend was telling me about Balansa Clover. I made the mistake of filling out an information request from www.goseed.com I am a little worried they are going to think I am a real farmer.
The Balansa clover looks like a good cover crop or a potential seed crop. According to the propaganda you can plant in early fall and it will tolerate wet soils and a ph of 4.5. I suspect it does not like a pH of 4.5 all that well and probably especially not with complete soil saturation for six months.
I would like to be able to rotate the clover with annual ryegrass.
Currently we try to have a three year plan. Year one we work the annual. Sometimes we plow. Year two if we get an early rain and a sprout in the fall, we spray out the annual and no-till. Year three, we try to disk aggressively and then get a sprout, then work again and plant or spray and no-till through the sprout. Year three requires a decision, are there enough weeds it has to be worked or can we use same decision process as year two. Generally we stay the course on year three. Then start over again with heavy tillage on the fourth year.
If it would be possible to break the annual on annual cycle with something like Crimson clover or this Balansa clover it would be very beneficial. The Balansa is supposed to give a huge forage yield so there would be the possibility of taking a forage crop and then no-tilling a spring grain or maybe even switching to a long term grass crop.
The other idea I was researching was the use of Idanziflam herbicide to control annual weeds in grass fields. I used this product as a pre emerge to keep right-of-ways and field borders free of weeds as a grounds keeper and it really works well. I have observed the improper use of the product on the field next to the University and I knew that the shrill people are gearing up a campaign against it. It must work really well to inspire a whole new fundraising campaign.
The only product that appears to be registered for use anything close to what I want to use it for is called Alion and it is only registered for carbon planted Fescue for seed.
The main problem with using the chemical for turf was that it is such a tiny mix rate that you could easily use too much. We are talking in the .25 oz range. It is also like $350 a pint or something outrageous. If you over apply the chemical, nothing will grow in that location for several years.
I probably should not share this post with anyone professing a belief in Regenerative Agriculture.
Can you imagine a Timothy field that was free of annual ryegrass, bent grass, reed canary grass, or Foxtail? That would be amazing!
And now I need to go feed the chickens.
Have a nice day...
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