Alfalfa seed- Established Fields
My favorite thing about our established fields of alfalfa seed is that we don't have to plant them. We ran a field cultivator over one field to thin the stand, and closed the pivot tracks with a track closer. That is the extent of our work on the established fields. The fields are looking great, and we are actually getting ready for cutter bees to go out in a couple weeks. Woohoo!!
Alfalfa Seed- Spring Seeded
We planted quite a bit of spring seeded alfalfa seed this year. Some of it we strip-tilled and then planted, and the rest of it we no-till planted. Both of these ways have their benefits. Both are great because it leaves residue in the field to help protect the newly emerged plants from things like wind and also helps with water runoff. Strip-till is great because it allows you to place fertilizer right where the plant will need it and provides a really nice seed bed. No-till is great because it doesn't disrupt the soil, and you only have to make one trip over the field which reduces soil compaction. Both fields are completely different soil types which is why we strip-tilled one and not the other. Both fields are off to a great start and looking good!
Strip-tilled field
No-till planting
Strip-tilled Alfalfa Seed
Some of my favorite pictures taken while planting this field:
No-tilled Alfalfa Seed
Click here to view all of our alfalfa seed photos.
Here is a short planting video:
Barley, Sugar Beets, and Clover Seed
We plant all of our barley with our no-till drill. Most of the barley this year was no-tilled. However, where we had sugar beets last year, we had to work the ground because of the compaction.
We strip-tilled our sugar beets this year.
We also drilled some clover seed. This is our first year growing that, and I am excited to see how it goes. I will post pictures of that in my next post.
It is really starting to get hot now, and our main chore is keeping water on the crops. Since we irrigate using pivot machines, our job is to make sure they stay running. This can be a full time job in itself. We are also putting bee huts and nesting blocks out in the fields in preparation for the leaf cutter bees. That is about it for now. I will do another post as soon as we start putting bees out in a couple weeks. Thanks for reading and enjoy the nice weather!! 🙂
So So Cool!!!!!!! Great Job
Love you Kids much :))
Dad
Thanks!! ❤