January to Febuary 2014.... From the Depths of WInter

Edard was right. Winter is indeed here, or was. Nothing to report other than the cold weather and continued below normal moisture in the western part of the country. Wheat continues to develop, the rye looks better than the wheat. The mixed cover crop looks better than both.

I started top dressing all of it a week ago, but sprayer problems developed and I wasn't able to finish. Word to the wise, don't use 12v DC or any kind of electric pump sprayer if you have a PTO on a tractor. This is the pump I recommend, and my preferred vendor:

This pump will not handle liquid nitrogen or strong liquid fertilizers, but relax, I don't use them. I prefer two types of organic liquid fertilizers. Neptune's Harvest Fish Emulsion and AGGRAND.
Just connect the appropriate hoses and add a tee to the discharge side somewhere you can see it, with a pressure gauge on it. I run it about 20 psi, but whatever works for your system. Just follow the application instructions and you will do fine. I have found both product lines to be highly effective.

When to apply top dress on wheat... the wheat needs nitrogen. That said, our organic wheat is top dressed with fish fertilizer. Though it has a lower analysis, that can be deceptive. The organic fertilizers tend to supply more available nutrients. It also will not burn your plants. "When  fertilizers are foliar applied, more that 90% of the fertilizer is utilized by the plant.  When a similar amount is applied to the soil, only 10 percent of it is utilized." Our results, over the years, have generally been good.

The mixed cover crop is seeded with vetch as part of the cultivar mix. This legume supplies extra nitrogen to the soil and in conjunction with the rye, which is fertility scavenger, makes this cover and excellent soil amendment. This mixed crop is going to be a used as a dead mulch. We have ordered a Caroni Flail Mower to kill the cover crop just prior to corn planting.

This is the 59" fine cut model. We scoured the internet discussion boards looking for a good one and it came down to just two. John Deere and Caroni. New Holland, though they have one listed on their website, no longer make them. Unfortunately for them, their design didn't preform very well. As mowers go, these devices are very expensive, $1700 to $4600 for a small one. The only reason we are going to use one is because of cutting style. This mower will cut the cover crop and leave it in place where it grew. Yes, disc mowers and sickle mowers will do the same, but the flail mower residue is easier to no-till plant through, which is the whole idea behind a dead mulch. The method is called "organic no-till". There are other ways to accomplish this, but we want to make certain the cover crop is dead before we plant corn in it.

We will cut the mixed cover crop when the rye is in flower, early stage when green foliage is at its peak. This should provide us with a dead mulch 4" or so deep. We are using the same method in the garden area where we will grow a few vegetables.

We have an exciting year ahead of us, and God willing, our own wheat, rye and corn from which to mill our flour and meal.

This leaves us with weather. Without rain, it will be another very tough year. That weather is largely determined by the Enso Cycle. This tropical ocean cycle controls the direction of the jet stream which pumps moisture into North America. During La Niña years, this means drought for the central US. Enso Neutral brings slight improvement and El Niño usually brings a wet year. Sometimes too wet, but we won't disparage moisture. Read more about it here.

This is the current outlook for the spring to summer of 2014. Not good news for the west, and it may be a while before the cycle turns favorable for them. As for corn and wheat country and northern vegetable regions, the outlook is certainly better than it has been. If El Niño forms this summer, this will help fix our water problems in Texas, but it is going to be a long rough haul for folks in California. 

I hope to plant larger acreages of wheat next year as the weather becomes more favorable. Prices are still good as corn continues to take up much of the spring wheat acreage.

Spring is coming!