Old pasture into corn, notill or??

JakeBrakeIH · Oct 31, 2016

Hey guys, looking for some insight. I have recently moved back home to the family farm and looking for some improvements on our corn yields. My mother and I took soil samples throughout the farm to get an idea on soil profiles and PH etc. We do have a pasture that has been pasture for over 40 years. Always had dairy cows on it and looking to rotate pasture into a "new field" and create a new grazing area.

I am interested to see the difference in the soil readings, but what should be our strategy? Would conventional tillage be ideal(subsoil, plow and disc?). Its roughly around 8 acres. Or do we just drop a no till planter in the ground and go for it?

Thanks for all your help!

Brown Swiss · Oct 31, 2016

Depends on how much it was grazed, could be pretty hard in some spots, best bet is to work it up some. then the other thing with no till is killing the grass and weeds, most years is not a problem but like this spring for me I had an issue trying to kill some stuff from it being to dry the spray wasn't working well on it, it took three rounds in some spots to get a good kill and that really affected my yield in those places. Normally it is not a problem but this year was one of the acceptations. I am going away from no till mostly because I never had consistent yields with it, and what I work up is always much better.

coonie minnie · Oct 31, 2016

No till works great in old pastures. You might want to use ROund-up ready corn, but it will work either way. Use a good two quarts of roundup for a burn down, and you might want a little 2,4-d as well.

Tillage will do nothing but wake up the huge bank of weed seed that are out there.

JakeBrakeIH · Nov 1, 2016

Each day the cows head from the freestall to this one pasture. The grass that is there is clipped down from the 50 or so head and there is some broadleaf weeds here and there.

I would definitely be using Roundup Ready corn but just wondering when it really is appropriate to do heavy tillage vs just simply no till? Or is it not that easy of a question to answer lol. Thanks guys!

Brown Swiss · Nov 1, 2016

If you spray it in the fall it really loosens the ground from the dead roots decaying and the frost working on it, but a little late for that this year, even sprayed in the spring the ground mellows out so much during the year. Like I said though it all depends on if you can get a good kill, the only time I couldn't was this spring because the grass was going dormant from lack of moisture. Just one of the draw backs of it. As far as me not no tilling any more has all to do with looking at going organic so no till is not in the picture any more. You need to know YOUR soil is the most important, some people it works for others it does not. My ground it is nice to just drop the planter in and go but I never had as consistent yields as with tilling, most to do with some of my hill sides may have four different soil types in one field.

GordoSD · Nov 20, 2016

Where are you?

John 37A · Jan 1, 2017

This past year I no tilled corn into a field that had been hay for 20+ years and into pasture that hadn't been taken out of pasture in at least 80 years (landlord's uncle is in his 80's and never saw the field plowed). Other than some planter issues in that field, it worked extremely well. It was my best corn this year by 16bpa. I sprayed in the spring before planting and spread cracked corn with my dry fertilizer to help keep mice and moles from eating corn seed (as suggested on new ag talk). I planted with 28% on the planter and had the co-op sidedress additional 28% and spray post-emerge with some residual. It was also my cleanest corn.

Biggest issue I had was some springs developed during planting where the dead grass was like a sponge. In several spots I just lifted the planter and tried to drive right through. Used a JD 7000 conservation.

I would definitely do again, with the major change being a befall burndown instead of spring to reduce tied up N.

thorfarms · Jan 18, 2017

Spray it in the fall with 2 quarts of round up
Then come back in the spring with your pre
Then notill to corn
Corn does well on sod.
Just remember pastures alot of time are pasture for a reason
Could be rocks or poor soil
A would test would be a good start at least you will know where your fertility stands

Old pasture into corn, notill or??

JakeBrakeIH

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Brown Swiss

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coonie minnie

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JakeBrakeIH

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Brown Swiss

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GordoSD

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John 37A

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thorfarms

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