Fall Spray verus Not

[ECIN]

Was out checking some of my fields to see how there holding up today , I like to fall spray - others don't and thats A- OK with me - but here a little side by side with a neighbor , his field is on the left -- mine on the right of photo , second is mine . I just like to keep them clean so they will warm up quicker and maybe have less bug pressure , anybody else on here fall spray ?

[Shaggy98]

Every acre that isn't seeded to winter wheat gets a fall burndown application with some type of residual herbicide tank mixed.

[Pat in CMO]

  I fall sprayed every acre I didn't have cover crops on the fall of 2012. Come spring I was wishing I had some henbit or chickweed growing to keep the soil from washing away. It is nice to have a clean field to start with in the spring, but i'm not sure it is worth the trade-off in erosion. I am experimenting with more cover crops instead of fall spraying for now. For what it's the fields I have the least weed pressure in this spring had cereal rye for a cover ahead of beans last year.  Patrick

[buckfarmer]

I was going to ask if your neighbor's was a cover crop.
Ditto on the chickweed Pat. It's been a good cover crop for me for years. At least it's priced right. Dies on it's own about the right time also.

[Shaggy98]

Pat, do you no till or conventional till?

[Pat in CMO]

No-till beans and a cheap strip-till (mole knife with closer discs) for corn.  Patrick

[ECIN]

Thanks guys for the replyies - Was just getting your ideas on this and why you do OR don't .

For me I No -Till and with a cover of weeds it was hard to get the ground to warm up to start planting , I have not tried any cover crops yet - Pat keep us informed on what you see if thats OK - Would like to see how that works out for ya .

[Shaggy98]

I was curious why you would have erosion issues if your no-tilling.

[buckfarmer]

On my ground notill is worse for erosion. The best management is notill with covercrops. Bean stubble will not hold much soil when it rains hard. It's very heavy clay with low organic matter. If I break that clay, water will soak in instead of running off like it does in straight notill. Ive tried several types of tillage tools that leave as much residue on top. I'm not explaining this very well hope you understand.

[Pat in CMO]

With the rain events that we have had the last several years erosion is a problem on no-till fields also. Not near as bad as full tillage, but when you get 3-4" in one event over a few hours soil is going to move in the low spots if nothing is growing to lessen the impact of the raindrops and no live roots to hold on to the soil. The last few years these spring heavy rain events seem to end im May or early June and then no more rain until maybe late into August. Not a good combination for a crop farmer.  Patrick