Well, at least the snow is mostly gone at my farm. Nothing else is very normal these days, but time to start thinking about the game plan for 2020.
I’m doing 2 things differently this year.
1. Instead of putting all my soybean plot ground in Eagle Forage Soybeans, I’m going to split things up. Eagles are stil the king for an early season bow plot, so my best bow stand will still have Eagle beans in the plot nearby.
My new goal for this year for soybeans is to have more action in the plots in the firearms and late seasons, so that means more pods. So this year the rest of the soybean ground is going into Real World Soybeans. I tested these last year and got very nice pod yields in the test strip, I wish I’d have gone ahead and planted more.
2. In the early season, I’m going to try to cover crop the brassicas plots so something is growing there to surpress weeds and build soil before brassicas planting in early July.
Now in the past, this has been nearly impossible because my plots have been soooooo wet for the last 5 springs that I haven’t been able to use a tractor at any time in April. So this year, I’m going to try to plant using only the ATV and equipment that it can tow.
I’m going to try to grow and oats and forage pea combo that I will terminate in late June and then plant brassicas. I’m planning to use a spring toothed drag harrow and just scratch up the soil and then plant the oats and peas and try to cover it with more drag harrowing.
Anyone ever tried this? My central concern is without a drill or disc to bury the seed, the birds will get 80% of it before it germinates. This has been an issue in the past when I’ve tried to inter-seed oats or rye just by broadcasting it on top.
Like every year, I’m sure I’ll have to do other new things just to adjust to changes in weather or other circumstances.
What’s your plan for 2020?
Grouse
