Precision Planted Tillage Radish Cover Crop

[BF2012]

First year to try this.   Planted on SRW ground that was too wet to plant to double crop beans early on.  

Seeding rate 4" spacing on 15" rows.   Planting depth 1/2" into dry soil.  

[Shaggy98]

What was the purpose of planting the radishes, nutrient scavengers, hard pan breakup or just to keep the soil covered?  I planted a few tillage radishes mixed with field peas and oats back in march, but freezing temps in late April and early May took its toll on them.  I might consider planting straight radishes after wheat harvest next summer, but I'm not sure I could keep the weeds out of them if we receive any summer time moisture.  What did you use to plant them?

[farmerguy89]

It's compaction busting/ overall yield increase. Lots of them cost $$$ though. Drill works, but I believe you need to use grass Attachment or mix w something else.. It would b like seedin canola. 5-6#. Some, and only some planters can handle small seeds.

[farmerguy89]

Maybe use red clover too shaggy? It's cheap/ similar to radish. Easy way to fill the field, w/o breaking the bank.

[Shaggy98]

Thanks 89, I'll look into that.  These cover crop strategies are all Greek to me, but I honestly believe they've got a place in production ag but every location is different.  Sometimes I think the seed dealers who are pushing the blended species are trying to tackle to many issues at the same time and we lose sight of the remedy we are after.

What are some of the pro's and con's with the red clover, if they get away from me and go to seed, am I going to be fighting volunteer for the rest of my life?  That's one reason I'm staying away from planting any rye and/or triticale.  I'm located smack dab in the middle of the wheat belt, and I don't want to be that guy that introduces another issue to the area.  Can the clover be hayed or grazed as it matures?

[farmerguy89]

Could be foraged. We grow it up north here. But we don't intend to hay it. The hardest part is establishment In our winter wheat crops. We try to broadcast this stuff a month before the wheat comes out of dormancy.

The tillage radish stuff takes off if you got the moisture. But if you got the time for clover to mature down there, you may be able to follow wheat harvesting to conserve moisture in crop. I guess your not Fighting water all spring like me..

As for termination: a lot of people use roundup+dicamba. It gives best control in the fall.

You may get triticale/ rye in your wheat sample If it goes to seed. Impossible to separate I believe?

Anyways, it's fairly well documented that the radishes/ clovers add something, whatever it is, that gives your crops more bushels. I guess establishing clover in a wheat crop isn't popular down there because you can double crop soybeans. The best I can do is a cut of oats

[BF2012]

Planted with 1780 23 Row 15" planter with small sugar beet plates.   4" spacing, about 4#/acre.   Purpose was all three - nutrient scavenger, hard pan break up and cover.   I planted them about two weeks ago, it could be December before we get 18 degrees for 3 days to kill them.....

[Shaggy98]

I checked into plates for my CIH 1200 a couple years ago and they were calling for the use of sugar beat plates as well.  If I did use my planter, I'm not sure if I could get the vacuum turned low enough for a seed drop.  I wonder how they would do on 30" rows.  I even thought about skip rowing Tillage Radishes with forage peas to see how that would work.  Several different combo's that I could use, 2x2, 4x4, or even 8x8.  Something to ponder I guess.  Thanks for the info.

[farmerguy89]

There may be some type of knockoff device if the 1200 is similar to Deere vacuum shaggy.

[mnvtfarm]

After shooting 5 rounds of sporting clays sponsored by my local CPS, I let a very nice young guy with thick glasses who couldn't hit the broad side of a barn from this new company, http://rowbot.com/ talk me into signing up 40 acres with them for a late summer attempt to sidedress/radish seed  into standing corn next year. Their rowbot may need some design changes IMHO, but they are quite fired up about the whole project.

Each rowbot does one 30" row at a time, I explained to him it would take all summer to do the 40, he claims they are going to show up with a whole fleet and run 24/7. It appears they are going to be quite busy building rowbots this winter, I think they only had one proto-type built so far. I sure hope it works.

Sorry ECI, looks like your going to be replaced by rowbots. 🙂

Here's the link again in case you missed it. http://rowbot.com/