Regenerative Agriculture Farm in Foules
Fall 2024 Plan
Deep Tillage and Thick roots forming drainage channels.
In order to farm with no till and no irrigation, we are going to plant flat. The biggest concern with planting flat is heavy rains may flood our crop. We need water to infiltrate quickly and not puddle in the field. A high percentage of organic matter and root penetrations will be the greatest factor, but this will take years to develop. We are jump starting our farm, with a one time pass of deep tillage. We will be ripping the property with a shallow (10 inch depth) subsoiler. We could not get our hands on one that would go deeper.
We will always include a brassica in our cover crop rotation. Many Brassicas will form large roots that will break open the soil and provide channels for water to quickly percolate as they decompose. Popular Brassicas are daikon Radishes and various forms of turnips.
Without much experience with daikon radishes, we are concerned that Daikon Radishes will become large and stick up above ground level. If we plant early they may be hard enough to bounce the planter around. So we have chosen to plant Rape (also known as canola). Rape should provide tap roots that are at least an inch wide and 12 inches deep. They should not affect planting. As these break down, they provide channels for water to penetrate the ground.
Cover crop plan.
Our 2024 main crop was harvested a bit late, and we lost time getting our deep tillage pass through the farm. We'll make a pass with a deep tillage (10 inches deep) implement. We missed a rain and decided to run the risk of planting dry. Ideally, we would want to be planted by early September. We finished planting on October 1. We then suffered a 30-day drought. We finally got a decent rain on October 31. (Rain data found here) We are not expecting a great deal of benefit from the winter kill portion of our seed mix. But we should get a good start on our Spring kill portion of the seed mix.
We used a John Deere drill set on 7.5 inch rows. (See our plot plan and cover crop plan.) The planter has two planter boxes. One for small seeds that need to be close to the surface and larger seeds that will be planted an inch or more down. We have had great success with spring kill cover crops in smaller plots. For the first time, we are planting two types of cover crops at the same time. Both planted together in the fall. A winter kill cover crop (normally growing in the summer) that will die with the first hard freeze. The winter kill crop will include Cow Peas and Sunflower. And a spring kill cover crop (normally grows in the winter) will include Rape, different types of grasses, and different types of legumes.
We expect the winter kill crop do die off in the winter and allow space for the spring kill crop to continue growing with less competition.
Note that we spending more than normal to buy merced spring rye shipped from California. We have grown this variety twice now. It flowers earlier than other ryes and grasses. This allows us to terminate it early with the roller crimper. This is especially important for corn that is planted earlier.
Foules Regenerative Farm Cover Crop Plan 2025
01 – 64 acres soybeans, primary cover Elbon Rye
02 – 51 acres soybeans, primary cover Black Oats
03 – 57 acres soybeans, primary cover Merced Spring Rye
04 – 36 acres corn, primary cover merced spring rye and vetch
05 – 31 acres corn, primary cover merced spring rye and clovers
Note. A mix of cover crops provides different root systems to improve soil structure
weed & insect protection, soil erosion, and nitrogen and other nutrients. Cover crops will also take up (scavenge) any remaining nitrogen fertilizer that would normally be leached out with the rains. The nitrogen going into its biomass would be release to the main crop and the biomass breaks down.
Winter Cover Crop. A summer crop planted in Fall, Killed by Winter freezes.
$1.17/lb. Cow Peas are a legume that if planted early enough could develop some nitrogen nodules and provide an early nitrogen boost to the spring crop.
$.42/lb Sun Flower develops a good root system to help with soil structure and scavenges nutrients.
Spring Kill Cover Crop. A winter crop that flowers and dies in the spring/summer.
$.34/lb Elbon Rye
$.47/lb Black Oats
$1.08/lb Merced Rye. (expensive because we bought last minute from California.
Elbon Rye, Black Oats, and Merced Rye are all various types of winter grasses. They would naturally dye off in the summer, but we will terminate early as soon as they flower with a roller crimper or chemicals if necessary. Grasses provide high lbs of biomass per acre and good root systems to improve soil texture and organic matter. They scavenge nitrogen and provide nutrients as they break down.. And most importantly if knocked down after flowering, they provide a thick straw matt that provides weed protection, water runoff protection, and prevents moisture evaporation. We are testing various types to see what gives the best biomass for the price and at time of the year do they flower. We are testing Merced Rye because it is known to flower early for early termination, and so early planting of the main crop.
$.75/lb Rape provides a deep tap root that develops in width to break up the soil and provide channels for water penetration. We considered Daikon Radish, but were concerned they might be so thick at the soil surface as to effect the planter. Rape also provides some assistance to pest management.
$1.85/lb Hairy Vetch.
$1.15/lbCrimson Clover
$.65/lb Aus. Winter Pea
$2.80/lb Balsan Clover
Hairy Vetch, Crimson Clover, Aus. Winter Peas, and Balsan Clover all legumes that can fix nitrogen. They all provide biomass and different root structures, but are mostly used to provide nitrogen for the main crop. We are testing several to see which ones provide the most benefits for the cost of the seed.
Spring 2025 Plan
Corn. There are two different thoughts on how to handle corn.
Early Planting. Most growers in the south worry about weather and high winds caused by Hurricanes late in the season, and so want to plant in February or by mid March. This gives little time for a spring kill cover crop to develop, and so this is to be made up by harvesting early and planting the cover crop early in the fall or late summer and getting more growth from the winter kill cover crop.
Late Planting. Other growers believe it is best to delay planting of corn until the spring cover crop has had enough time to reach full growth so you get plenty of biomass and enough biomass to create a matt when roller crimped that helps prevent week growth.
Early termination. We decided to terminate the spring cover crop with roundup, lead off, crop oil, and strut chemicals a full 30 days before planting intention. We were concerned that the cover crop would continue to take up nitrogen and compete with the corn during planting. We were really not sure if we needed a two week or four week gap between termination and planting so we went with the conservative treatment of 4 weeks.
What we did on our farm. On farm plot 4 we terminated with these chemicals on Feb 10th in hopes of planting by mid March. The cover crop at this stage was only about 6 inches high and so we got little benefit from that cover crop. Hopefully, we will do better next year with an early harvest and early planted cover crop.
On farm plot 5, we waited two additional weeks until Feb 24th before terminating, with hopes of planting about the end of March. This cover crop looked much better. The Merced spring Rye was about 18 inches tall when terminated and so should provide some weed protection when roller crimped and more nutrients as it is digested/decomposed later in the year or the following year.
Soybeans.
With the soybeans, we are going to let the cover crop develop hopefully to maturity to maximize biomass and weed protection with roller crimped. We hope to plant sometime in April or early May.
We are testing 3 different grasses that will mature at different dates. Merced Spring Rye, Oats, and Elbon Rye. We will measure biomass results. They have different seed costs and so we are looking for best the economical results.
They can be terminated mechanically with the roller crimper as soon as they have flowered and starting to produce seeds, the anthesis stage. But we also have the option of chemical termination.
We will test three different planting methods. We will not necessarily do all three treatments on all 3 fields, because the maturity dates of the grasses and the weather may dictate what we do.
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Chemical Termination with Roundup, Reviton, MSO, & Choice just prior to or just after planting. Planting soybeans in standing rye. (probably 3 feet high). Then terminating the standing rye with a roller crimper when the soybeans are about 4 to 6 inches high in the V2 or V3 stage.
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Chemical Termination and roller crimping prior to planting. (this will be a small test as we have low expectations for this method.)
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No chemical termination. Planting into standing rye. Terminating only with the roller crimper. (only if the rye has gone to seed, as we expect with the merced cereal rye when the soybeans are at the V2-V3 growth stage. If needed we will apply chemicals at a later stage.