Brassicas

[Daver]

They've been pounding our brassicas for 3 weeks now and were digging them up last night when my brother was down at the farm up the road from Dave.

Good info...I am pretty sure where Mark will be sitting will be near both brassicas and standing corn. I just hope it is cold enough to spur daylight buck movement. Our #1 2015 target buck has been out in the daylight multiple times in the last few weeks. Tonight just might be his last hurrah.

 

[MNbuckhunter]

My son will be hunting our place this afternoon, I will ask him what he saw in terms of brassica usage. I suspect though that with a little dose of actual winter weather, the deer will finally be on the corn and beans more right now. At least that is where I told him to sit.

Well good thing our Dbltree mix is enclosed in standing corn. We did it so the deer would feel secure but also doubles as a grain food source.

 

[bwese]

Tonight was a strange sit. I have 4 acres of standing corn about 2/3 has been eaten, and I have 3+ acres of clover and brassicas. I saw 15 - 18 deer feeding/browsing their way through these patches. When I got out of stand and walked out through a combined bean field there were at least 50 deer feeding throughout the 60 acre field. There is 4" of snow over everything. I don't get the attraction to this field. Prior to the snow when I walked through this field there was not much on the ground for critters, let alone deer.

Anybody else seeing this?

 

[Daver]

Tonight was a strange sit. I have 4 acres of standing corn about 2/3 has been eaten, and I have 3+ acres of clover and brassicas. I saw 15 - 18 deer feeding/browsing their way through these patches. When I got out of stand and walked out through a combined bean field there were at least 50 deer feeding throughout the 60 acre field. There is 4" of snow over everything. I don't get the attraction to this field. Prior to the snow when I walked through this field there was not much on the ground for critters, let alone deer.

Anybody else seeing this?

Sort of...maybe. My son sat in what I thought was a slam dunk spot tonight and saw a little bit of everything, blue jays, crows, pheasants, turkeys, quail, woodpeckers...but only 2 deer within 75 yards of that spot, a baldie and a little buck. (He did see 3 other deer across the ravine, 100+ yards away, but even then, that was far fewer than we thought he would see.) But both of us were stunned with the lack of sightings in the immediate area.

FWIW, the snow was torn up something fierce in the area from recent feeding activity and a nearby camera that he checked revealed lots of recent activity, including a visit from Mr. Big just 10 hours before he got there. (It was a nocturnal pic from last night.)

We'll see what the next few days show, but tonight was a very disappointing and surprising sit. He did remark that it was dead calm and that is often associated with very modest deer movement in the evening in our experience.

 

[iowathumper]

Question with Brassicas mix

I have for the past 4 years planted the mix and then went in and put the Spring clover / oat blend in.

Could we not add the spring plot in when we plant the brassicas and save some tillage work and time?

 

[iowathumper]

Fertilizer question on brassicas plot

I have taken soil samples on all my plots in the spring for planting brassicas.

I have noticed I never need any P it is always High or very high.

The recommendations from Paul were to always put down planting corn as the crop on the soil sample.

Just wondering what others are doing for there Urea on these plots? Are you using the 200 Lbs per acre or going less due to the clover we are adding in the spring temporary plots.

Just looking for info.

 

[IowaBowHunter1983]

I have for the past 4 years planted the mix and then went in and put the Spring clover / oat blend in.

Could we not add the spring plot in when we plant the brassicas and save some tillage work and time?

just my opinion....but not sure you are saving much of anything when you consider what you have to deal with in the late summer to get brassicas in without a spring cover crop. The spring/summer cover crop keeps the weeds down big time and prevents their proliferation, prevents erosion, and provides free nitrogen (for which you can account for and cut back on your fertilization of the brassicas and save some money there).

You are also keeping food in the same spot for an additional 4 months which is a major plus in my book.

Just my 2c

 

[Spiider]

I have for the past 4 years planted the mix and then went in and put the Spring clover / oat blend in.

Could we not add the spring plot in when we plant the brassicas and save some tillage work and time?

About 3/4 of the way on the 1st page, Paul said this;
"I do not reccomend mixes or mixing clover or cereal grains with brassicas, one or the other will dominate, suffucating the other crop."

He proceeded to show pics of how the clovers and/or oats would overtake/dominate the brassicas.

Not recommended.

 

[IowaBowHunter1983]

About 3/4 of the way on the 1st page, Paul said this;
"I do not reccomend mixes or mixing clover or cereal grains with brassicas, one or the other will dominate, suffucating the other crop."

He proceeded to show pics of how the clovers and/or oats would overtake/dominate the brassicas.

Not recommended.

I believe he is talking about rotating the clover/rye mix with the brassica mix, not mixing together.

 

[Spiider]

I believe he is talking about rotating the clover/rye mix with the brassica mix, not mixing together.

I don't think so. If you look at the examples and pictures, he's talking about NOT mixing clover/oats/cereal grains WHEN you are planting brassicas.

The OP asked if he could skip the cover crop planting after the brassicas are dead. "Could we not add the spring plot in when we plant the brassicas and save some tillage work and time?"

 

[IowaBowHunter1983]

I don't think so. If you look at the examples and pictures, he's talking about NOT mixing clover/oats/cereal grains WHEN you are planting brassicas.

The OP asked if he could skip the cover crop planting after the brassicas are dead. "Could we not add the spring plot in when we plant the brassicas and save some tillage work and time?"

The way I read Thumper's post was he asking about skipping the spring cover crops AHEAD of brassica planting later in the year..... I believe.

Regardless, my response was assuming a rotation. I would KEEP the clover/rye cover crop (plow-down crop) ahead of the brassica planting for the reasons previously mentioned, assuming that is what thumper was talking about. Agreed, don't plant together.

 

[iowathumper]

Spiider got it right. I was just thinking we could plant the oats and the clover when we plant the Brassicas mix. Then in the spring when the brassicas is dead the oats and clover would come up.

On my place when I till in the spring I really get a rush of weeds along with the clover and oats.

As for the fertilizer everyone staying with 200Lbs acre for brassicas even though we have the clover in there from the spring plot?

 

[IowaBowHunter1983]

Spiider got it right. I was just thinking we could plant the oats and the clover when we plant the Brassicas mix. Then in the spring when the brassicas is dead the oats and clover would come up.

On my place when I till in the spring I really get a rush of weeds along with the clover and oats.

As for the fertilizer everyone staying with 200Lbs acre for brassicas even though we have the clover in there from the spring plot?

Damn I hate when I get final jeopardy wrong!

Fertilization..... I did an experiment last fall. Planted a portion of my brassicas into clover with ZERO added nitrogen. I would say they did pretty well. Certainly not as well as the areas I went with 200# urea plus clover, but pretty darn good. I think if a guy wanted to be covered (this is a complete guess), id try 100# urea if planting brassicas into clover. I might try that myself this year.

 

[6x6]

For what it's worth, I break all of the rules with my turnips and radish. I have my feeding areas broken up, but I like to disc my clover, without killing it, and not too deep, for my late July turnips and radish, so that it comes back, slowly. Some plots also have rye seed from the year before, which I don't mind. I never use any herbicide or fertilizer, and always have leftover brassicas. I still have to frost seed places that the brassicas did well, but these plots feed a lot of deer, 12 months out of the year, so they keep the rye down. My deer always seem to prefer the medium sized bulbs over the biggest ones.

 

[MNbuckhunter]

For what it's worth, I break all of the rules with my turnips and radish. I have my feeding areas broken up, but I like to disc my clover, without killing it, and not too deep, for my late July turnips and radish, so that it comes back, slowly. Some plots also have rye seed from the year before, which I don't mind. I never use any herbicide or fertilizer, and always have leftover brassicas. I still have to frost seed places that the brassicas did well, but these plots feed a lot of deer, 12 months out of the year, so they keep the rye down. My deer always seem to prefer the medium sized bulbs over the biggest ones.

I did the same thing last year. Lightly discard the red clover and then planted brassicas. Brassicas did well and red clover came back. Now I have a plot of red clover for the deer to feast on.

Unfortunately deer don't hardly hit the brassicas in my area. Have planted them for 3 years now using the Dbltree rotation and they have hardly been hit. Going to plant soybeans this year and spread eye in September.

 

[risto2351]

What is everyone thinking then for recommended Nitrogen if the turnips are going into a field of clover tilled in?

 

[northcedar]

Personally I would be going with no N in that case.

 

[Jbohn]

I put down 400LBS of Nitrogen and 200LBS PNK even after red clover. Always have a great stand.. Just planted Saturday grounds looks good.

 

[Hodge]

I just tilled in my white clover and planted then packed it in. ideally I wanted to do it at the end of the month, but I close on a new house on August 1st so I had to jump at the opportunity to plant now.

 

[DHaffner]

I have had excellent brassicas with no fertilizer the right soils. Since n is highly mobile in the soil you can always bradcast the urea before a rain if you think they need a boost. I'm trying to elimimate tillage from my rotation wherever possible and brassicas have been my most successful broadcast plantings for midseason so I use them to fill any areas that are thin in other types of plots...