If it's too late for corn, what next?

Can someone explain the benefit to winter wheat? I have always planted rye and just plowed it under in the spring. Basically a cover crop.

I just don't want to have the fields sit open, I get a huge tax break being listed as a farm, and the city uses every chance they get to say I'm no longer a working farm, not to mention I'm grandfathered in an area where farming is no longer allowed. I only plant the corn to keep the fields working, and keeping from having to cut them all summer for weed control. My farm has been in the family for just over 100 years, and right now for me, it's more of a hobby than it is a money maker. I own a machine shop and run that during the day, I don't get to relax until I get home and start to work around the farm.

Thank you all for your input and help.

Jay

If you're farming 8 acres, how are you set for harvesting and planting equipment? If you're doing it for fun... replant the corn and forget it.

I replanted corn yesterday and I'm in South Central Ohio. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Just enjoy yourself. I'm sure the machine shop will keep your farm afloat for a while longer.

I have full tillage equipment, I have two corn planters, a large funnel type seed or fertilizer type spreader.

I have to plant a small plot of corn to sell with my Pumpkins as decorations anyway, but I don't want to do the full 8 acres of it to find out if was waisted my time on it for feed value.

Some suggested Pumpkins, and that's what I planted for years, but I started to get a ton of Bacterial Wilt and Powdery Mildew problems, and it got to where I was spraying every week. It because too much of a pain, and then I found a large wholesale pumpkin farm north of here, and I can but my pumpkins cheaper that growing them with all the spraying costs ect.

I'm not so much looking to make money from what I plant. Like I said, it's a hobby, but I also don't want something I have to spray or mess with every weekend.

I buy my hay from a farmer down the street, and can work something out with him to bale anything I need.

The thing that I have a hard time explaining to many people is, with farms being something of the past around here, buying seed for some of what has been suggested is a chore. Like someone said, I asked for soybean seed one year, figuring I would plant it, and then let the goats graze them off, and the seed place looked at me like I had three heads.

I bought a bag of buckwheat here one year also as a summer cover crop on one small plot, they hit me $95 for a 50# bag. I'll never do that again.

The thought of planting a legume to put some nitrogen back into the soils catches my interest the most. Corn on corn has taken it's tole on the soil.

I'm sort of leaning toward buying some feed oats, seeding them real heavy and letting them go, but I just don't know if it's the right choice.

Jay

We sell it for $3.00/short bale. We make them shorter to get more bales out of it, and they don't care, they actually were happy with the idea. They mark it up and sell it for around $5.99-$6.99.

I do believe there is a different wheat out there that doesn't have to winter over.

Donovan from Wisconsin

Once it's dry enough to bale or chop, you can't even tell the other stuff is in there. It just looks like nice gold straw.

We're in Kaukauna, between Appleton and Green Bay.

Donovan from Wisconsin

Soybeans would be my choice 'here' but you said don't work there.

Any old oats will do for hay.

I would look at putting a plowdown blend with it, clover, cheap alfalfa, etc. If you have been running corn on corn on corn, your ground will welcome the break. Put a good legume down. You could hay it later, let the legume grow, plow it down in spring & gain 80 lbs or more of N for your soil. Anyhow, that works 'here' and works well.

--->Paul

To all of those that recommended beans, I called my seed dealer here, and he said that people in CT don't plant soybeans, so finding seed is going to be a problem. If he had to bring it in special for me, he was going to have to charge me a bunch of money.

I should also add here, I'm talking about a plot of 8 acres here that's being planted.

Thanks again for all the help.

Jay