Farm crop rotation

I read on here and see the guys around where I live rotate crops year to year. Question I have is how do you farmers keep track? Do you keep it in your head, draw it on a map/plat of your farm or use a computer.
Serious question, been a tractor guy for a long time but never a farmer.

Most folks I know just keep up with it in their head. If a guy has enough ground I guess a map would be a good idea. Even though I don't have but a very few row crop fields I do keep a map with fields numbered on it and a record of soybean and corn numbers that have been in that field and how they did. If a corn variety didn't do well at all in a field one time I do not want to put it there again unless there was some odd ball reason why it didn't do well. I also use the map with numbers to keep track of soil samples and other field info. For most of my row crop ground I try to flip flop between corn and beans every year but some of my ground is pretty soggy so some times I have to go beans after beans on some if it.

What I really have to watch is tobacco. I will put tobacco in the same spot two years in a row but want at least 4 years of something else(shoot for 6). I have to keep in mind where I am going with tobacco next year and not put too much chemicals on the corn or if it's pasture I don't want to put any high dollar clover seed where it will be. Also have to keep in mind where the tobacco will be and not plant corn up hill from it. (I had tobacco down hill of corn two years ago, a big rain ran over the diversion ditch. I thought the tobacco drowned for a while cause it will not take alot of water but the morning glories and rag weeds died too!)

Hope this helps a little.

Dave

Practically speaking I keep it in my head. FSA has it on the map and if I need to know I can look.

keep in your head when buying seed, that and chem records from previous year.

When planting time comes it is pretty easy. Stubble is enough different between corn and soybeans that it is kinda hard to miss

Years ago I planned a 6 year rotation, oats/alfalfa, two years alfalfa production, corn, beans, and corn. I split the place into the 6 patches and made a drawing with a table showing the rotations.

Eventually I figured out that between the bounced checks from the horsey types buying the wrong hay for their nags and the loss of corn production while growing the N with the alfalfa that I should buy the N and changed to a two year rotation on the 6 patches. A few years of that and the custom combiner allowed that he'd charge less if I did whole farm rotation so I went to whole farm rotation corn and beans alternating and no till. So it was easy to know what the new crop was going to be. Not the residue on the field.

But beans have never been spectacular on my farm and after a not great 2008, I rented the place out to a youngster who has given up on beans going continuous corn with strip till. So far he hasn't exceeded my yield per acre, but he expects to.

Gerald J.

In my head.

I plant 1/3 soybeans, almost 2/3 corn, and a little oats thrown in, and from time to time a field of alfalfa shows up.

I have 1 field that's experimental, going to be 4th year it's corn -see how that goes.

Here in myclose neighborhood, beans have stagnated on yield, just don't grow well. corn keeps getting better, so corn is taking over more of the fields.

Dad used to plant 1/2 beans, 1/4 corn, 1/8 oats, 1/8 wheat.

I used to plant 1/2 corn and 1/2 beans, with a little oats and maybe alfalfa sucking out a bit.

Beans just aren't worth it, basically planted to break up the work folw of planting & harvesting time.

'Here.'

--->Paul

Not keeping hard visual records today is like putting a gun to your head and pulling the trigger, not knowing if there's a round in the chamber or not.

I keep a map on the computer. It lists field size, type of crop, brand and variety of seed and date planted and what herbicide it's designed for. We have so darned many varieties and types of GMO crops today that keeping good records is a have-to. I have a copy of the map with me when the field is planted and sprayed.

Spraying the wrong herbicide on the wrong field can wipe out the crop in the entire field, like spraying Roundup on non-roundup resistant crops or Liberty on corn that's not Liberty-resistant, and it does happen somewhere in the county every year. Crop insurance does not cover herbicide mistakes. Jim

I keep it in my head. With my few acres and all round-up corn and beans, with some wheat, it is easy to do. But when I start going with some conventional or liberty, then things go down on a map, just in case I can't do the spraying.
My bean yields too, have leveled off.
Brian(MN)

I plant all corn one year and all soybeans the next. That way all I have to remember is what I planted last year. Better yet, I can forget that once I've ordered my seed. Did that in December. Two ways to look at it. Soybeans take a lot more seed. Less to harvest at bigger price. Corn takes way less seed but then you need lots of trucks to haul it away in the fall.

I keep a chronological computer log. Open a MS Word doc when I start in the spring. I plant 6 different plots with various crops. And I'm spraying, fertilizing, 3 cuts of alfalfa also. I need to have a record of when I did the various jobs on which acreages, when I mowed first cut and so forth.
And I'ts a good record for comparing production year to year and see what the effect of methods were. I also enter in rainfall cronologically.

Always made a written record...overhead layout of each farm, its numbered fields, crop for current year, and acreage. Copy to the fertilizer plant for custom applicators. Separate sheet for estimating expenses for seed, fertilizer, chemicals, etc. Farm record book I"ve used for over 35 years has pages for that, but I don"t use them- just keep separate folders in the file for each year. I still don"t do my books on computer- still like hard pages to flip through.

I do keep a written record, but it is much habit as anything. With zero till the evidence of the previous two crops is right in front of you. I have more trouble keeping track of how much of what kind and grade of grain is in what bin.

What about this-good black Cole County Illinois ground rotated corn and beans for years.

Planning of going straight beans for the next four years and adding Potash???

well, i grow everything from a to z- asparagus to zucchini- and of some things like tomatoes, about 35-40 varieties. some crops like snow peas less than 1/10 acre. so even though it all adds up to about 50 acres, i do LOTS of record keeping. got a little black book (pocket calendar) for each year; i also use power point and an aerial photo to draw in where each crop should go. gets really interesting with some crops like pumpkins that really should have 4+ year rotation, which crops need to be near the road for u-pick, which crops can't go in the one small field that's always loaded with deer, etc etc. i try to write down everything i do in the field all summer long.

Thanks for the replys, and all the hard work.
Kevin