need michigan crop advice

Nick m

Member
I have a hay field that I knew was on the downside. Was going to squeak out one more year. Looked at it yesterday and it's worse than I thought. Almost all the rest of the alfalfa died out over the winter and the grasd isn't very thick. Thinking about getting first cutting off it asap then planting it to something else. Would like to no-till beans in it, but I've witnessed one field where it was tried and didn't turn out well. I have access to a no-till drill and a neighbor plants my corn so all options are open.
 
no till beans are a good option to bringing set aside land back into production. Three critical things with no till beans, do not plant in wet ground, do not plant within 24 hours before a soaking rain, spray properly. The more warm the ground is the better this will work, I would wait until June.
 
Will crop insurance be involved?

Soybeans planted in a hay field, or a field with no crop history may be an issue. The beans may not be insurable.

Check with your crop ins. agent if needed.

Gene
 
My rotation includes planting hay after no-till soys. We no-till the soys after corn, so this March I ran over the bean stubble with a rototiller to bury some of the cornstalks left over and smooth out some tracks from lime spreading. My no-till drill placed the pasture mix a couple of weeks ago and the rows are visible from the front window as I type. Grass benefits from the nitrogen fixed by the soys, and we avoid the atrazine damage to alfalfa with the year after the corn crop. Having three fields to rotate, the oldest got chiseled last Fall and planted to corn this past Friday- rows are up and visible, also. I'll keep that field through corn/soys/corn/soys before going back to hay.

I understand you wanting to get out of the hay field this year, if you get first cutting off little early, you can give the beans maximum potential for rain before the summer dries up. As long as the field is smooth now, and you are careful not to rut it up during bean harvest, you could go right back to hay for next year.
 
I wouldn't be half afraid to plant corn after first cutting. There was a field over west of Ithaca last year that was no tilled in stubble like that. Super nice field of corn. Back when I was hauling milk in the early 70s,traveling a lot of miles it wasn't unusual to see a field plowed up after first cutting and seeing it put to corn.
 
What is the rainfall like this spring? I have successfully no tilled beans into old hay. Yielded 50 bpa with adequate rain. I've also had a flop doing the same thing. The flop happened when i waited for the first cutting then planted beans. We had a dry spring and the hay had sucked up all of the moisture and left little for the new bean crop. If you are having plenty of moisture right now you have a better chance for a good bean crop. I am in Northwest Iowa.
 
Innoculate innoculate innoculate and add p + k and drill your beans. You plan sounds ok to me. Of course if the neighbor will take your corn at a fair price, take 1st cut and follow the baler with no-till RR corn then spray.
 
What are you growing hay for? I'd think about taking 1st cutting hay, tear it up and plant corn and then cut that for silage, that's if you're doing hay for cattle or have a use for the silage.
 

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