2025 no till plots updates

So we are on year 2.5 of full regenerative ag on our place.... For those that are familiar with regenerative Ag it's the tough part as the soil is working on changing from fertilizer and chemical help to doing everything on it's own with microbes and plants working together.

With that in mind...

1. Our plots were generally fairly sucky this year. However it's a system and all part of a bigger plan so we didn't stress over it too much. What made the hunting part of it harder was a down plot year coupled with no mast crop.

2. We have totally cut out all herbicide and haven't used fertilizer until two weeks ago. We pulled Haney soil tests on our fields and made the decision to add 50# of 0-0-20 to our plots to help them. Prior to that no chemicals or fertilizer had been put on the fields for 2.5 years.

3. Soil is starting to turn, we have a nice mat of organic material formed on top of the soil. We still don't have enough fungi in the soil but hopefully that is coming.

4. It was a little slower see #1

5. We planted early this year to try not to get hit by drought. We had our place planted by April 15. We didn't bother crimping as we didn't have enough to crimp we just planted green. We planted a mixture of Drop tine seed about 1/2 summer squelch which adds carbon and mellows the soil we planted about 10 acres of it on our hill top fields that have the most clay soil. We planted Summer reload and summer nourishment in about 8 acres and then we planted a legume mix on another 4 acres. I also farm our leased land which has more fields there we do 1/2 conventional and 1/2 regenerative. All of the regenerative is planted roughly the same. I have about 10 acres of corn with beans, clover, and vetch between the rows for more N. The conventional group on our leased land is still trying to decide how they want me to plant the rest of the fields.

I'll say this summer so far I am actually seeing our fields on our place start to look better. I think we may be starting to turn the corner but time will tell. No matter what we are still very happy with what we have done to get away from chemicals.

quote:

---

we are on year 2.5 of full regenerative ag on our place..

---

After watching DaHammer go all in on regenerative ag, and doing all the research, and running a budget on both, I made the decision to go full conventional with the most herbicide and extra fertilizer at every opportunity.

You have a problem most don’t…. You have so many damn animals running around you have to give plants every ounce of energy to not get over grazed or over rooted!

Man I don’t know. I feel like everybody has an overabundance of deer and pigs in SW MS.

Just mowing?

I did some small bow plots in February/March. Clover and chicory. Deer have been hitting it. I do plan to go spray the weeds just because they are new.

I also did some overseeding on my larger plot. I’m going cut it down next weekend.

quote:

---

cgrand

---

Well we aren't all retired construction magnates recently converted to hippie worm and fungi farmers. Some of us have to do this while working for a living.

I'll tell you another thing that grinds my gears about all this regenerative ag crimping and rolling nonsense: Mixing three of four seed types all together and pretending that this is some sort of advanced farming technique.

It's not. It's called being lazy.

The only thing you should mix in a food plot is wheat and clover. And then, ONLY on the condition that you spray the shite out of the wheat in February with a grass herbicide so it doesn't choke out the clover come March.

All these "dove magnet" mixes like millet, sorghum, sunflower, etc all in one bag... want to know what that looks like? It looks like shite. It looks like a big wad of weeds.

Here's a better idea: plant sunflower and farm them like you mean it. Then move over 10 feet and plant your grain sorghum. It needs totally different herbicides, planting times, spraying timing, insecticides, etc. You can't mix the two.

Then move over another 10 feet and plant your millet. It needs separate management as well.

Then two things will happen: One is that your fields will actually look nice. And the other is that they'll actually have doves. So you'll have that going for you.

Im about half vetch in summer wheat in winter. And the other half year round clover

Im picking up the drill from Devinney in 3 hours. Will be rolling at daylight tomorrow. Maximum tillage. Maximum herbicide.