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CRP Mowing

gundog870

gundog870

Premium Platinum Member
Mowed some first year crp tonight (CP2 - Big blue, Switch, etc), was planted May 14th, but here is my question:

My top fields are looking great, at least I think (Could be foxtail for all I know, I'm new to this). But the bottom field looks like crap. All weeds, hardly any grass, just junky looking. That field is in a bottom, is an East facing bowl. Is it possible that the top lighter soils are that much warmer and causing better growth so far? Also, I was able a to only knock about 6 inches off the grass and clear out most of the weeds up top- hoping the grass blows up now. The bottom, I mowed pretty short because of the limited grass.


Top field
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Bottom field- Junk
13439020_10209348309322935_5664701690825548999_n.jpg
 
You need to pull samples of those grasses on the top field. Do a little research as to what the ligules, hair on leaves, etc. looks like between annual grasses and natives. If that top field is all foxtail I would much prefer the condition of the bottom field.

The difference in what is growing could simply be based on soils or sun but also the history of the fields, what kind of disturbance they've had in recent history, yada yada. I wouldn't worry too much, it's really hard to screw up a simple grass seeding like that. I've seen many do just fine that never got a maintenance mowing.
 
Wouldn't expect to see much topside growth from a month old WSG planting, they will grow root system first. As far as the "weeds" go, most are probably beneficial to the wildlife as food , nesting and brood rearing.
 
Even on "steroids" first year native warm season grasses don't look like what you're mowing. They are probably there but unless you get down on your hands & knees looking (and know what you're looking for) they're hard to find. Most of us who are relatively new at this, just think we've got a dismal failure for the first couple years... "patience grasshopper" ;)
 
I like bottom field better. top makes me nervous. I think you got yourself a case of foxtail carpet.
 
I mowed the top high only because I didn't know what was all there, but now you all have me convinced that it is in fact just foxtail... Hmm it's weird because it is uniform over the just about 80% of the 20 acre field, could that be right? It looks the same in the alf Alfa strips.

4 strips of this field were alf Alfa that I Nuked the week before planting and the rest of it was corn stubble that was not sprayed.

The bottom field was corn that was cut for silage, and I sprayed the week before planting as well.
 
Still betting "foxtail". Suspect that a few stems that your tires pushed over and didn't get cut will stand back up & mature. Then you'll know for sure...
 
Good question. I think you'll be fine. May want to mow again later if/when more foxtail appears but I wouldn't do it again right now. It'll take a couple of years but in my experience, the native warm season grasses will eventually outcompete the foxtail and it will be great!
 
Been a learning process for sure. From what I can tell is that there is definitely a major Johnson grass/foxtail issue in the top field. I'm just hoping that my couple of mowings does the trick for next year. The positive note is seeing plants like the black eyed Susan's coming up through all of it. Ateast I can identify those and know that is what I planted :)
 
We planted big bluestem and switch for a crp contract last year. Wasn't able to mow it because it was so wet last year in our area. It got pretty thick with foxtail in a couple small fields, in fact nothing but foxtail. I burned the 2 small fields this past February(2016) and both those fields are now more than head high with switch and bluestem, almost no foxtail at all.
 
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