last resort grain combining but got it done

Had a 9 acre field just across the road that went down flat about a month ago in a rain storm.We had very humid warm weather for the next 3 weeks and the few short weeds that were underneath the grain took off like a rocket.They grew up completely through the flattened grain field,formed a green mat over most of the top of the crop and became a tangley viney mess.We reluctantly tried to cut it,the augger wrapped and the grain in the bin was full of waxy green leaves.When we tried to unload it,Dad had to turn the unloader on and off while I climbed in the bin to jump it down and back out for him to turn it on to see how much more would come out.Decided to give it a good coat of round up and leave it for a week and a half than tackel it again.About 9 days in,an inspection of the field revieled that only the top half of the weeds were dying while the bottom half was green and thriving.So our last resort tactic was to mow it with the impellor disc mower and combine it after the weeds dried out.The grain stayed fairly well intact,took only 2 days for the weeds to dry.We don't have a pickup head,so had to keep the header very low and let the pickup reel pull it into the head.We mowed it about baling width so it would be easier to pick up.That combine ate alot of clay and the cattle should get their minerals on that bit of grain.We ended up loosing about half of the grain being knocked off by the mower.Wouldn't recomend it to anyone unless it's an absolute last resort,but I figured that half was better than none,was easy straw to bale and now the field is cleaned off.Will spray it again with round up to clean it out before ploughing.

Maybe I'm not to bright but, why would you spray it with roundup again if you are just going to plow it under.
Only top half died. That's not the way roundup works is it? Maybe I'm missing something.
Inform me. ........ Thanks,

Don't know if it's wrong or not,but alot of people spray with round up a few weeks before ploughing,makes very clean fields for next year.I have no idea why only the top half of the weeds only wilted.I thought it should work too,but it didn't.I used surfactant,exastly the same rate and water amounts as I used on my RR corn and it worked wonderfull on that.Somthing didn't seem to add up.

now your feeding grain with glyphosate and surfactant on it. might be ok I don't know...think i'd rather bought feed. you surely aint feeding many head off 9 acres...just a thought.

It's recomended on the label just for that,I have a phone,that works,our crop scout completely ok'd it,we had 150 acres of grain in in total,feed 140 head of cattle,milk 65 cows,have a full time employee,several cassuals,is there any other information you need????????????Not much wonder people get turned off this site lol.

also,just incase you're wondering,we buy grain ontop of that,so we aren't starving any cattle here either.

It sounds like the other weeds that came up were under the crop mass, and not hit with the roundup. So if not in contact not killed.
I understand using what you have but would it not have been just as easy and maybe just as cheap to have cut one way when it was dry than all that work?
We cut 20 acres of oats one way just to get them so we didn't loose half of them cutting both ways.

if you read the label,it also recomends that you can spray your final cut of hay and make feed out if it afterwords.I don't like to get so snappy on here,but assuming all we have is 9 acres and an old skinny cow or maybe two ticked me off,I'm sorry.pd

Phil,
I understand using RU if these weeds will be standing until they go to seed but, if plowed under shortly after combineing it looks like wasted money to me.
I understand that people in different areas are inclined or forced by circumstances to do things differently but here, I wouldn't do it unless I was no-till. Thanks for your input.

the weeds were so wet it was wrapping up on the augger,and the wet leaves were ending up in the tank.Had to get it dried down.It was only a few acres,wasn't really that much work,just a pain in the rear.The field became a disaster.

slow down dude, i was just going off what you told in your first story. i didn't mean you are feeding one broken cow but that was a lot of time, money and troubleand wear on equipment for one 9 acre field if you have that 150 to feed from. you guys are big time, no doubt.

why did you post the post if you didn't want questions/input?

My opinion is that you did everything right to salvage as much of the crop as you could.

What a mess. I have been there and feel for you. My Dad had a pickup attachment and most years after wheat harvest was over we would put it on and do a fair amount of custom work for neighbors who had weedy fields or oats or alfalfa seed. It is amazing how fast the weeds will dry out once they are cut. My uncle has some thin wheat one spring that he drilled oats into. He had a really good crop but we had to swath it to get the oats dried out before the wheat shattered. Made some really good dairy cow feed then. Sorry you lost half the crop but glad it was only 9 acres and you got half anyhow.

combined grain would be better than cows eating snow dairy farmers do what you have to do cant waist nothing , unlike big grain farmers running on crop insurance and goverment payments

Easy on the grain farmers Mike.We pay for the crop insurance, just as you do your car insurance. None of us want to use the insurance, we would rather have a crop.

Grain subisidies are very low now cause of higher prices.

The dairy guys are getting a well deserved government subsidy as well right now because of the low prices.

Think of our government payments as way you are getting cheaper food. Food is higher now but the gov payments are lower. When the gov payments are high you get cheap food if the middle man does as he should.

Gary

re; why spray if going 2 plow
IF YOU GOT QUACK GRASS U GOT 2 KILL IT B-4 U TILL IT , THE CUT ROOTS WILL JUST SPREAD 10 FOLD
BEEN 2YRS KILLING IT OUT OF A 80/A PARCEL,LEARNED THE HARD WAY, HAD IN ONLY ABOUT 20/A FIRST YR, HAD NON GMO BEANS, AFTER THE BEANS WERE OFF THAT STUFF EXPLODED, chopped 20 4corn silage last year and sprayed the pi$$ out of it,that 20 was clean come spring, had another 20 this yr that was 2 wet to plant {mich} hit that hard 1st part of august, spray rep said 2 wait at least a mounth b-4 working 2 make sure the roots are dead-dead, hope it works, almost got it cleaned out??? hope so

Similar thing happened here with all the rain, especially if the oats were not sprayed for weeds, even some of our fields that were, eventually got taken over, but he spent about $700 on guard extensions, sounds ridiculous too, but when they sprayed, he had them put nitrogen down too I believe, oats grew tall, rain weighted em down, and they fell over, those extensions were able to get the stalks, and the grain was pretty clean, we did some 30-40 acres for another farm, no spray, too much rag weed and seed, our oats were good this year, better than 1 ton per acre but what a mess some of the fields were, rain, had to wait longer to get into the fields, as those oats dried down, the weeds came right up through, some areas I thought were a loss, but we got the grain, just lost some straw, was not all as bad as it looked, but I hear ya, nothing like a clean field with em standing up.

May be 'OK' but I sure wouldn't want the milk from the cows feed that stuff.No wonder more US Consumers are going Organic

Phillip, I've been involved with the same problem on many acres through the years I was on the wheat run, and there's just no perfect way to deal with down wheat and weeds. I've been in the grain tank knocking down the green sileage many times and I've also been inside the combine un-slugging it. Thistles are the worst, for an obvious reason.

Usually when roundup is used it only takes a few days to wilt the weeds and then it's good to go. The weeds don't need to be crispy dry, just wilted enough to make the stems soft. If you have to shave it off the ground the wheat straw will be tough too. It's just one of those jobs you have to muck through with a lot of determination.

It's getting a little late in the season to get much re-growth, but maybe you could let the shattered grain grow a bit and then graze it. Maybe hit it with the disk lightly to start it growing. Just an idea. JIm

My understanding is the suffucant used is more harmful than the RU to people or animals. Not quite like other herbicides,pesticides and fungacides.

Up here, Round Up takes at least two weeks to work…..two and a half is better. If you need a quick burn to get it through the combine, Reglone is good. Four days and your good to go.
Chris

Many years back when fences were still up brother had a small field to pick with lot of downed stalks. Made a round of field and checked wagon- could still see some floorboards. He decided to give up on picking, save fuel and turned out beef cattle to get their own supper- the steers chewed through ears and stalks till snowfall and cleaned up field fairly good. I"m guessing you don"t have much in way of fencing to keep hungry cattle in? RN

When you see a bountifull crop of couch grass, timothy and alfalfa in your wheat crop next summer with no way to control them you'll fully understand why most around here do a fall burndown before plowing....

I would also suspect that there wasn't a full kill on the weeds because some of the crop sheltered the bottom growth from actually receiving an application of roundup. It can happen...

Rod