The more time I spend in my fields, the easier it is for me to answer the question of where do I spend my money for next year's crop. I like the way my fields look today. I have plenty of residue and few weeds from last year.
Today would not be a good day to this in Ohio. You might get shot! It's the first day of deer season and I hope Eric gets one this morning. He heard some shots close to the farm he is hunting this week last night so I went to check it out. Whoever shot their gun was gone by the time I got there.
It was hard to pick out just where to put his deer stand but we know the deer's walking pattern on that farm. There are lots of good spots near the one creek that goes through it and there are several. It's in a 30 acre woods overlooking a 30 acre bottom.
I liked what I saw on the ground and we covered most of it. The wheat crop residue is melted down very well with nice soybean stubble sprinkled on top of it. It is ready to no-till into corn or soybeans.
My corn residue looks good too but it looks old fashioned compared to some of my neighbors. I have a lot of corn stalk mass sticking up in the air and covering the ground. You have to scratch to find the soil and I like that. It can slowly rot all winter until it warms up next spring.
Some neighbors have a chopping corn head now and their fields have no stalks sticking up. It looks like it has been chopped to the soil surface. It looks pretty but is not as nice to no-till soybeans into from my experience.
What do your fields look like today. Are you ready to go planting in April 2015 if weather allows?
Ed Winkle
Some of mine look just like in that picture, unpicked corn.
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