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Switchgrass

arm said:
10-4. Why do you guys know more than the guys that do this for a living?


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Don’t even get me started!!! How much “expert” advice out there that is straight up WRONG or incredibly misguided is mind boggling & shameful. Very true statement and great question!!!

So- to even answer ur question specifically - agree with JBohn..... Panoramic at 4 oz on NEW SEEDING..... this will give you 4 weeks of weed coverage I’d guess. At the end of That “4 weeks” - often times we are still 30-45 days from switchgrass germinating. U will be set up for a flush of weeds at that rate & really won’t do much for helping switch. If any remains- many weeds will come through & it will damage some switch. Likely not bad but it will set it back or hurt some seed. Bottom line, a couple OZ would help with early weeds a bit BUT u better load it up with atrazine & possibly some other options.

Here’s the facts on Panoramic/journey/Plateau....
It’s one of the best single herbicides I’ve ever used. BUT..... only when used at very high rates & when I’m trying to establish Indian, big blue, etc. 12-18 oz to acre - absolutely awesome!!!!! Just not for switch!!! Cleaning up old switch stands - agree with above- excellent. Save panoramic for Indian and B.B. Go with atrazine with switch (or B.B.) & be ready for different different flushes of weeds that may start to come on. More atrazine the better. Legal limit BUT if there was no legal limit- I’ve never seen a scenario where “too much” has been put down on switch. Seen some “test plots” with 10 qts/acre equivalent - no issue to switch. Herbicide to soil contact is critical & there is some additions I add in certain cases BUT just be sure to stick with atrazine as one major tool for switch.
 
Walked some CIR switch hoping to find a shed Saturday in the rain... realized in about ten seconds that was a waste of time! Stuff is 5-7ft tall. Big blue in there is even taller!

This will be the 4th year on this planting. Some great stuff.

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Coming up on April.... when is the earliest you all would spray atrazine in April?

If adding gly or liberty, maybe there is no need to rush it.
 
This a new seeding or trying to boost an existing seeding? Seems like new seedings don't sprout until mid May while existing seedings could sprout as early as mid-late April.
 
LoessHillsArcher said:
This a new seeding or trying to boost an existing seeding? Seems like new seedings don't sprout until mid May while existing seedings could sprout as early as mid-late April.
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Both scenarios actually. I'll just go second week of April.... no reason to rush it with a post emergent also in mix I suppose. Should be safe then on existing.
 
Yup, you got a good game plan! We've got a similar situation where we over seeded CIR switch in some old CRP that was mostly big blue and foxtail. Gonna spray it here in the same time frame you mentioned. Good luck!
 
Well tomorrow is Easter and I am going to see the sunrise on my Kubota before church. I know it is a little late... but time constraints and soggy fields have put limits on me. I will drop 8-9lbs of Kanlow/CIR at a 30/80 ratio with the Great Plains drill. 18 degrees here tomorrow morning so I looks like one of my last chances before things soften up again. Snow and rain ahead in the next month. Love this grass and everything it does for my farms here in SD. I have used atrazine and roundup as discussed here in the past. So easy and so effective. My switch fields are amazing by year 2. The deer just keep getting bigger and more frequent. HE is risen! Hopefully these seeds will follow.
 
SoDakarcher said:
Well tomorrow is Easter and I am going to see the sunrise on my Kubota before church. I know it is a little late... but time constraints and soggy fields have put limits on me. I will drop 8-9lbs of Kanlow/CIR at a 30/80 ratio with the Great Plains drill. 18 degrees here tomorrow morning so I looks like one of my last chances before things soften up again. Snow and rain ahead in the next month. Love this grass and everything it does for my farms here in SD. I have used atrazine and roundup as discussed here in the past. So easy and so effective. My switch fields are amazing by year 2. The deer just keep getting bigger and more frequent. HE is risen! Hopefully these seeds will follow.
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You have any pics...?
 
Absolutely love this thread. Done quite a few full reads. I have 9 acres that was just frost seeded in January. We had a thaw and the timing was perfect.

I seeded at a rate of 5 lbs CIR and 2.0 lbs of Kanlow per acre. The field was previosusly an Alf-Alfa field. I think I got a really good kill the previous fall. There was quite a bit of bare earth when I frost seeded.

So Atrazine is a huge topic of discussion on this thread and rightfully so. That being said I do not have access to it and the local elevator will not put it on until they start corn. That could be mid May. I have not noticed any weeds germinating yet but I know it’s about to begin. They won’t even spray glyph or anything closely related to that until they start corn.

What are my options for weed control if I can’t get Atrazine down? With the dates they gave me for application it’s possible some of the switch will start to germinate. I thought about applying Simizine ASAP and then going for Quincloric and Glyph mid to late April. Will that suffice until they could put Atrizine down in mid May or should I forgo the Atrizine all together at that point? I really don’t want to set growth back with clipping weeds. I just hope to time this right to prevent a weed issue.
 
Atrazine in April or may is not going to be a problem. Sure- u can do some post emergents and simizine right now as well. I’d still get on their schedule and have them hit with atrazine- no question. Heck- I’ve seen years u hardly can find switch in June. Really starts coming in July strong. So- April or may- no problem. Lot of ways to skin this cat.... u sure could hit with post and preemergents (simizine in ur case) in next couple weeks. I personally would spray twice but that’s me. Lot of options for u with ur clean seed bed & time before germination. Keep on weeds and lay down as much preemergent as u can/able to. Get on ur co-ops spraying schedule!
 
I just need it to stop raining for a few days and I will get Simazine down. I’ll hit it with Glyph and Quincloric once I see a little weed growth. Hopefully that holds me over until the Co-op can hit it with Atrazine in mid May. This spot also has a 2-acre destination plot and watching the bucks work the edges is fun. I think it will be magic if I can get the switch established. Thanks for the input.
 
Hi guys...it's been a while. Thanks to the great advice I received here, I now have roughly 25 acres of beautiful CIR and Kanlow switch stands on our farm in central WI. We used swith to surround sizable Ag fields as visual screens that allow us to get in and out of our stands. That has been a huge sucess.

I am, however, quite disappointed in the use of the primarily monotypic switch stands for deer bedding. We also had a 2 acre bean field in the middle of our largest contiguous stand of roughly 10 acres. The deer just started hammering the beans a month ago when we mowed the switch around the bean field to begin prep for a burn.

We have seen a significant increase in coyote activity that we fear is related to our developing these beautiful, thick 6' tall switch fields. The deer seem to fear the switch , probably due to predation. Deer numbers seem down. We planted these fields to do something different than what anyone else around here had. Looks like we may have accomplished that:(

We are considering changing our philosophy and planting little bluestem and forbes that we believe the deer will be more comfortable in??

Has anyone else out there ever had a "backfire" experience like this.
 
Coyotes love switch as much as the deer - I do agree we our best switch stands are a little "weedy". Deer love the diversity. We've always strived for pure switch stands but never achieve them, there's always sunflower, thistles, sweet clover, milk weed, golden rod, sumac, etc that comes in.

We planted about 70 acres of the short grass CRP mix this year - I'm curious to see what deer do with that stuff that's about 4-5' tall and full of forbs vs the tall thick switch. I've heard from a couple people they seem to like it more than switch even!
 
You will be happy with diversity in seeding!!! I do some pure switch but I’ve got more acres in mixes and forbs now. Yep- they love it. I’ll continue to do both & I do a lot of my Changes based on soils or where I do or don’t want deer doing “xyz” (bedding or feeding or whatever). Rich soils for switch is a start but I do put “other mixes” in rich soil as well. Yep- long story but I agree with above & diversity will be great if you are able.
 
Thanks guys. If I were in it for biofuel I would be stoked. I read a Purdue U. manual that talked about disking the switch after a burn to tame it back a bit. May do a small trial area. Seems to be a bit of a shame to kill it back now that it has turned into exactly what I THOUGHT I wanted. I'll keep you posted.

Still love it for visual screening as well. 12-15' strips are plenty. Better than EW for many reasons (perennial, standability & density).
 
If one of my videos I made comment about getting better stands by doing some light tillage ahead of frost seeding. This picture is worth a thousand words in that regard. I tilled this one strip because it was rutted up from dragging logs out. Then the whole field was frist seeded at once. The only difference was the strip was tilled. See what a difference it makes.
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IowaBowHunter1983 said:
If one of my videos I made comment about getting better stands by doing some light tillage ahead of frost seeding. This picture is worth a thousand words in that regard. I tilled this one strip because it was rutted up from dragging logs out. Then the whole field was frist seeded at once. The only difference was the strip was tilled. See what a difference it makes.
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So- r u saying the tilled area came in better? Did u use atrazine and was it planted in last years drought year? Rest didn’t turn out well?
 
Sligh1 said:
So- r u saying the tilled area came in better? Did u use atrazine and was it planted in last years drought year? Rest didn’t turn out well?
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Noticably better in the tilled area. That "driveway" of switch that is taller than the surrounding switch was tilled. I've found similar results many times. Bottom line I won't plant it without light tillage anymore. The non-tilled atea is there and will catch up . Two years ago, so no draught. No atrazine cuz I didn't have RUP license at that time but did do timely sprayings and mowing.
 
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