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Curious to See Everyone's Opinions...

Pure, I dunno how much snow cover you get or how heavy your soil is, but if it were my land, I'd leave it alone over winter. Let the snows rot it down, then in the spring, spread your micro nutrients and work it under. Again, I guess it depends on your soil type, but 30 inches of second growth is going to be tough to convince to get under the soil.

Rod
 
I agree with Phil. One additional suggestion: soil test it for fertilizer needs, HEAVY graze it for a couple of weeks only (maybe even goats and/or sheep), fertilize it with whatever it needs, and no-till it. The wind in that country is wicked, and anything you can do to slow down the soil blowing is a bonus!

DOC HARRIS
 
Pretty good advice Doc...the only thing is the wind your talking about. Pures just over a half hour from us,we get wind at times but sure nothing really wicked esp. in the winter.
 
Pure, I have been researching the organic teas for a while now and have talked with some that run up to 3000 acres.

Some interesting reading is available on the soilfoodweb.com site. Dr Elaine Ingram at the U of Oregon is a world leader in bioligical activity in soils.

Green manure or plow downs as some call it is the fastest way to build organic matter in the soil. Feeding the microbes is imperative in rebuilding soil.

1% OM is barely even soil. Must be tough to farm. I have soils at 2.5% and they are bad.

Basically conventional farming has killed off many of the microbes in the soil. Chemicals have yanked the PH values around and I just read an article that said roundup encouraged the growth of fusarium in the soil.

Fusarium is a fungus and fungi are important in a balanced soil, but fusarium is a bad fungus.

Aerobic bacteria need to out number anaerobic baceria and they eat fungus in healthy soil, so you need to feed the fungi to feed the bacteria.

Green manure feeds the bacteria, carbon based things like straw feed fungi.

Good luck with it, building soil is very interesting.
 
I'm liking the option of leaving it stand over winter. This field is wide open, and does blow a fair bit because it's so sandy. Not what you'd call bad winds, just that it's elevated ground and no trees on the north-west sides for cover. It's not really thick regrowth, so working it in shouldn't be a problem, especially after it's broken down over a winter of trapping snow.

NR - if I could afford to fence it, I would. It'd be a great spot for swath-grazing or rotational if it was into grass/alfalfa, since it's only 1 mile from home. We've got that planned into our budget in 2 years time, and a trailer or something to haul water. But we can't do it this year, so it waits like many other things that would be 'nice to have'.
 
Well a one wire electric wouldn't cost much more than plowing it under would it-if it gets high enough you could swath it-than after a snow-snow plow a ridge artound it and just stick temp posts in the snow ridge. There must be a farmer around there with a water tank you can beg borrow or steal lol. I'm going to get an old press drill transport and manufacture myself a portable water system. I thgink you could rotational graze a pasture with no cross fencing at all just by moving your water source.
 
Northern Rancher said:
Well a one wire electric wouldn't cost much more than plowing it under would it-if it gets high enough you could swath it-than after a snow-snow plow a ridge artound it and just stick temp posts in the snow ridge. There must be a farmer around there with a water tank you can beg borrow or steal lol. I'm going to get an old press drill transport and manufacture myself a portable water system. I thgink you could rotational graze a pasture with no cross fencing at all just by moving your water source.
Click to expand...

I'm sure you can read between the lines here NR. I'm well aware that one-wire electric wouldn't cost much, but add in a couple hundred for an energizer, $100 for a good battery and a few other items, and the fact that our budget did not include those things, and well, like I said before, it'll have to wait.
 
:oops: Sorry Pure,I forgot about your soil being so sandy,should have remembered...I'm still cleaning sand out of trailer after staying at Fish lake beginning of July.
 
Tillage demons... thats funny.

Too much tillage is definately a bad thing, like in the 30's when all fields got 2-3 passes every year.

No till farming is good for fields as I have seen an increase in organic matter, but the increased use of chemical that most incorporate in the deal is as bad or worse for other aspects.

Green manure with 1 pass of tillage is awesome, the land has to have enough trash to not blow however. I have some silty soil that I want to plow down this fall, but won't do it unless we get the promised rain later this week.

By leaving the trash till spring, it is dried out and will still help the soil, just not as much as if it was green. 2 reasons, not the same volume of material, and the growth has taken full moisture out to set seeds. The seeds are a further reason to not leave it, they could seed down too much in the way of crop or weeds that are present. Those plants in the spring can take valuable early moisture needed for the next crop.

Lots of guys are going back to summerfallow, but seeding a crop each year and plowing down every other year is etter for the land than a straight fallow.
 
Jason - This regrowth isn't mature enough yet to set seed. If we get this frost or snow later in the week, it won't get a chance too either.

Northern - I know what you mean. The plans for this land though, is that it's going to be rented out for 5 more years. The guy that's been renting, has quit farming, and the friends that we want to rent it to asked for a 5-year deal. So, after much deliberation with my folks, we're giving it to them, with the understanding that we're seeding it down to alfalfa/grass after that. So all straw will be put back on every year, and yes, they do no-till farming.

We also added a stipulation that the 5th year's crop can be nothing that will impede the establishment of the forage. It won't be a problem though, as the renter's one of my best friends. We help each other out with everything from baby-sitting to brandings.
 

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