Re: Cover Crop Incorporation

Russ Bulluck (lrbulluc@unity.ncsu.edu)
Wed, 12 May 1999 09:08:36 -0400

Do you flail mow (or bush hog) first? We used a rye-hairy vetch mix, flail
mowed, and used a Ferguson Tilovator with a 5' bed shaper. If it's mowed, a
disk should work just fine (of course I'm a biologist, not a farmer). Do you
use another amendment for additional nitrogen? We found that the rye-vetch
mixture tended to tie up nitrogen (at least the tomato yields from those plots
were much reduced compared to the swine manure and composted cotton gin
trash).

Floyd Johnson wrote:

> We started using rye as a cover in 92. Back then we killed it with Round
> Up and when it was dead we pulled an Aer-Way over it. Then we No-till
> planted or drilled . We are currently going through transition to
> organics. A Rota-vator dealer introduced us to organics by saying if we
> would use his tiller instead of roundup we could qualify for organic
> premiums and we would be away from chemicals, which I thought was a very
> good deal.The first spring the tiller worked great,so we bought one.
> Then the trouble started. The first summer it worked so-so. The next
> spring was wet and we worked some fields several times before we could
> get them planted(very time consuming). The second summer we ruined 2
> gear boxes and rebuilt it 3 times(very very time consuming). Winter of
> 98-99 I bought a old IH 470 disk just to have on hand. We also traded up
> to a heavier duty tiller. Spring 99- it was getting late and I gave up
> adjusting tiller and hooked on to disk. It didn't work too bad and was a
> lot faster.
> I am looking for a implement that will incorporate residue (Rye
> (sometimes waist high), hairy vetch, red clover, etc.) into the top 4
> inches of soil (mostly silt loams) without causing a lot of grief . We
> farm 500 acres in central Illinois. Half of the farm is on a 3 year
> rotation the other half is 4 year . Our big tractor is currently 130 HP
> 4440 JD.
>
> Floyd
>
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--
Russ Bulluck
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Plant Pathology
North Carolina State University
PO Box 7616
Raleigh, NC  27695-7616


http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/plantpath/Personnel/Students/webpage.htm


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The soil population is so complex that it manifestly cannot
be dealt with as a whole with any detail by any one person,
and at the same time it plays so important a part in the soil
economy that it must be studied.
--Sir E. John Russell
The Micro-organisms of the Soil, 1923
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~






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