"I've been farming this farm for 4 years. I've raised corn,soybeans, hay, cereal rye, clover, sudex, buckwheat, chickling vetch, hairy vetch, oats, berseem clover, turnips, and crown vetch. My rotation varies with soil fertility but I mostly use cereal rye cover crops to control weeds. My fertility program uses both dry mineral fertilizer and a combination of liquid and solid fertilizer. Most of my weed control comes from mechanical weeding and cover crops."

The Zippe Farm is an integrated crops/livestock farm

Production approach: Certified organic
Rotations: corn, oats, hay, hay, soybeans
Cover crops: Cereal rye with vetch in Fall after grain crops, buckwheat after oats
IPM used: None
Tillage: Moldboard, disk, field cultivation, rotary hoe
Soil amendment program: Manure, cover crops, lime
Soil tests: Click HERE.

Field was visited 5/7/09. Soils were wet. Thistle was observed on the farm. A large patch of Canada thistle was observed in a field with sloped forest soils. Luke had just disked the field the day before and will use this field for the project. In addition to trying the mowed sudan grass, Luke will graze a portion of the field with his calf/cow herd and compare the impact to mowed section. The following plan was developed with Luke:

1. Till multiple times. A disk will be used 2-3x before planting sudan grass.

2. Plant sudan grass. Seed will be located and sudan grass will be planted in early June at a recommended rate of 55 lbs/acres in area tilled.

3. Mow and graze sudan at 4-6'. Sudan grass will be mowed or grazed just as thistles are starting to flower. Sudan should be at least 4' tall.

4. Sudan will be mowed again. A second mowing will prevent any thistle from flowering and help build up a thick layer of biomass to smother thistle.

5. Sudan will be tilled under in Fall or following Spring.

The Zippe farm was visited again on August 25. Thick-growing sudangrass was observed in the project field (See pics below). No thistles were found.



Here's what Lucas Zippe did:

June 2 -- half the field was rotovated (3.5 mph @ 269 rpm)
June 5 -- other half of the field was disked 4-5 inches deep.
June 10 -- entire field was seeded down at a rate of 1.2 bushels/acre with brown mid-rib sudangrass from Blue River Hybrids.
Aug 29 -- began strip-grazing disked half of field.
Sept 1 -- mowed rotovated half of field using 315 woods batwing mower
Sept 11 -- cereal rye was drilled into disked field



Farmer comments:

"I am pleased to tell you, it was a success. On half the ground I used a Howard rotavator at 3.5 mph before planting. This was the best method. There was only one plant that survived out of seven acres. I realize not everyone has access to a tiller so I did the other half with a disc with good results as well. The field that was totvated has been mowed since then and I strip-grazed the disced field. I have reseeded the latter and any plant that has shown up was completely trampled in the matting the cows trampled down. I have sown cereal rye since then with a no-till drill."