No Till Food Plots - So Easy

[at1010]

Your on the right track w soil mending. There is a great thread about it on texasbowhunter.com. Look for “a year in the life of a farm”. This guy has been doing this for years. Be prepared to read for a day and take notes. He has very good results.

Yea I just posted in the book thread. This year I have read 4 or 5 books on soil health. A soil owners manual is one that everyone should be forced to read in highschool - fantastic book and easy to read.

I have a lot to learn but so does the entire nation. We are still learning a lot about the soil microbes. I believe it’s estimated to be 1 trillion soil microbes - scientists believe the have identified 10% only! That’s insane to think we are not sure even how they all work together but we do know they have some type of symbiotic relationship.

Dr. Haney is out of Texas I wonder if he is the one on that blog? He has actually developed a test (I believe) to measure actual bio available nutrients in the soil vs. today our tests measure micro and macro nutrients but they may or may not be bio available for a crop. This means we can under but often over input synthetics - which can results in run off, waste of money, etc.

again. Sorry for rambling. I really love this stuff.

 

[triple_duece]

Go read that thread you will be impressed and amazed.

 

[at1010]

Yea, I think spraying Gly would be the ticket. But I understand your concerns of harming soil microbes. That being said, I don’t know a farmer who doesn’t spray Gly, and they’re as concerned about soil health as anyone. My vote.... spray baby, spray.

I vary well may. Until I see a negative impact on my annual soil samples or I can afford a crimper so I can go totally regen ag!!! Hahaha

 

[at1010]

Your on the right track w soil mending. There is a great thread about it on texasbowhunter.com. Look for “a year in the life of a farm”. This guy has been doing this for years. Be prepared to read for a day and take notes. He has very good results.

I cannot seem to locate it - do I need a login? Can you send me a link?

 

[triple_duece]

The thread or the website?

 

[at1010]

The thread or the website?

the thread. I actually used to live in TX and was familiar with that site.

 

[triple_duece]

Try this. I can’t copy the url in Tapatalk.

 

[giles]

Keep your nerd on Albert! Spread that wealth of knowledge!!!

 

[triple_duece]

Keep your nerd on Albert! Spread that wealth of knowledge!!!

He gonna be reading that thread for a while. Probably the most informative thread I’ve read

 

[at1010]

He gonna be reading that thread for a while. Probably the most informative thread I’ve read

I did locate it and will give it a read. Thanks.

 

[at1010]

Keep your nerd on Albert! Spread that wealth of knowledge!!!

Thanks brother! I truly love learning about all this and trying to share the little bit I’ve learned from some of the smartest soil scientist on the planet. I’ll share books and resources on this thread as well for folks to reference.

 

[giles]

Keep sharing and I will keep reading. I'm not big on planting plots and such anymore, but if I can better my soil, I'm in. I know I need to handle all this honey suckle before I decide to do much else. I'm covered up in it and my woods looks like crap.

 

[at1010]

Keep sharing and I will keep reading. I'm not big on planting plots and such anymore, but if I can better my soil, I'm in. I know I need to handle all this honey suckle before I decide to do much else. I'm covered up in it and my woods looks like crap.

I want to keep this on soil mostly but as a side bar - you can have a state forester come to your property, it is free. They will draw up a forestry plan, if you want to follow it you can take advantage of the Ohio State Forestry Tax law or use it to apply for EQUIP programs - this can lessen the financial burden of treating invasive with costly herbicides. I typically hack/squirt honeysuckle and basal bark spray (sometimes hack and squirt) tree of heaven. I use tryclopher, diesel fuel, and 41% concentrated GLY. You can spray/treat (in my experiences) anytime outside of of Spring - even in winter, the kill can be successful. I believe the study was done a Penn State - that talked about them having VERY high success rates treating in July - i cannot recall the reason why that was the best month, my guess was that the plants are stressed and trying to absorb any moisture possible so they soak up the herbicide and shoot it down the roots. Again, just my experiences and going off memory so take it with grain of salt.


PS - I use these same soil methods on my garden to foodplots - I even have thought about winter seeding some radish/rye grain into my hard to help feed the soil and reduce inputs. I am a nut about this stuff haha.

 

[at1010]

Ok all - I seem to have some interest in this and I appreciate the feedback and you all following along. I want to preface this (should have said in start of this thread) I am not an expert, a biologist, an agronomist, or any other title. In all honesty, I am a regular joe who just loves to learn and experiment.

Over the years - here are few resources I have used to learn, the little bit I do know.
1. Dr. Grant Woods - Growing Deer TV - This is a variety show - Dr. Grant talks about the "buffalo system". If you want to learn a very high level idea/understanding of how the rotational aspect of no-till plotting works - check out Dr. Grant. Youtube - buffalo system seminar.
2. A soil owners manual - Jon Stika - read this book! It is super easy to read, talks about the symbiotic relationship between plants and soil - mycorrhizae!!
3. Dirt to Soil - book - Gabe Brown - fantastic story about a farmer in SD who has changed the way many farmers farm anymore! He has rebuilt his soil through regen ag practices.
4. Ray Archuleta - Soil Scientist for the USDA. He has worked with Gabe Brown, David Brandt (Ohio farmer) and others - youtube him, his seminars are fantastic. He does some experiments where he shows how no till soils react to hard rain falls, vs. tilled soils - fascinating.
5. Jason Snavely - went to Mississpi U as a biologist, owners of seed company, has a few seminars/podcast that are worth a listen
6. The Soil Will Save Us - not as detailed as other books but worth a read, different take - always good to hear varying opinions.

I think that is a decent start, those above will be days/days of reading and information. Hope this helps!

 

[Henry III]

Alfalfa is one of the best cover crops as well, with a 25 to 1 carbon to nitrogen ratio. And the deer love it!

 

[Henry III]

An ideal microbial diet is 24 to 1

 

[at1010]

Alfalfa is one of the best cover crops as well, with a 25 to 1 carbon to nitrogen ratio. And the deer love it!

Alfalfa is a good crop for sure! A touch expensive to plant, especially if terminating shortly thereafter - for me at least. I would not be interested in an alfalfa only planting for my goals but I may need to reconsider adding it to a mix. I am a firm believer in avoiding monocultures.

I have been following some research that is actually suggesting that if you can feed the soil microbes through more diversity and planting frequency, even a lower than 24-1 ratio might be better - the issue with this is you need to have constant feeding or the microbes will break items down too fast, and then essentially starve due to not enough to feed on to sustain them. I believe Jason Snavely and Dr. Rick Haney were working on this research. The 24-1 is what has always been recognized, even in the composting world as well - currently I try to shoot to balance my fields based on the 24-1 ideology.

Thanks for the inputs Henry!

 

[Henry III]

 

[at1010]

He gonna be reading that thread for a while. Probably the most informative thread I’ve read

this thread is great!! I see where he mentioned Jay Brandt - Jay's father, David Brandt is from Central Ohio and is a father of REGEN AG!! Super cool. Also this dude has some impressive $$ to spend on deer! I am about 10 pages in and I will keep reading! Awesome stuff.

 

[at1010]

View attachment 117228

This is a good chart! Thank you for sharing.

As I mentioned there is a TON still being learned about soil health. Soil Scientist believe to have identified 10% of the 1 trillion soil microbes - that leaves quite a bit to be learned about "ideal" conditions still. Although, I still shoot for the 24-1.

Also notice on this chart, young alfalfa is 13:1 - when plotting for deer, often plots are smaller, and will get heavily browsed or never reach full maturity. That is why I believe in high diverse plantings to balance out the 24:1. If you plan on only one crop to achieve that, and then you have over browse occur, you very well could fall short of the goal, and have nothing left for the microbes to feed on.

In my opinion and goals I will cover in this thread is about highly diverse crops to feed varying soil microbes, will still a focus on trying to balance the 24-1 cton on a annum basis.