June 14th, 2011
Almost 60 days exactly after planting the first corn for the year...after which it endured nearly 3 weeks of abnormally cold wet weather, the corn that eventually came up has done well and is over knee high already...
Some of it is thin so I eventually replanted more then a month later and overlapped with some more soybeans...just for fun
I planted along side the existing rows to keep from damaging what corn did come up....note that the combination of winter rye and Dual II Magnum has kept the field very clean!
4 times my son and I have been rained out while trying to get the electric fence fully finished, weeds sprayed and everything in place...yesterday made the 5th time when once again a storm drove me out! I did get some more work done including lowering the bottom wires where the fence cross some low areas because some deer were slipping under neath it!
Grrr! Pesky things!
Again...the allelopathic effects of the winter rye are obvious as the soybeans remain weed free!
Just as obvious is the Alice white clover that remains unphased by an earlier application of glyphosate!
Perhaps this is fortunate however because the deer that have slipped under the fence have been focusing on the white clover
Where I disced under the white clover for corn, it's already coming back...not hurting the corn in the least, making it in effect a perpetual food and nitrogen source.
Earlier I posted in the brassica thread, pictures of the GroundHog Forage radish that had come up this spring from ungerminated seed broadcast into standing milo and soybeans last fall. Discing the soil prompted the seed to germinate and that in turn led to deer feasting on the tasty brassicas, despite...the tender baby soybeans and corn!
Says something for the palatability of forage radish when they pass these up!
I talk a lot about "adapting " deer to feeding in one place, year after year...all well and good until one tries to keep them out! Even with a 2 fence 5 wire electric fence, a few determined deer have found ways to get into their only known feeding area despite having food sources (including soybeans) outside the fence. I have yet to try the tinfoil and peanut butter simply because I get rained out each time I attempt to finish the project but eventually I'll try that as well.
In mid summer I'll plant a strip of Purple Top turnips down the center between the corn and soybeans and overseed the corn and beans with winter rye and forage radish...the combination of which will keep them coming back all fall, winter and spring.... :way:
