<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

FlatRyan is the brainchild of a few fabulous agvocates who took over the Agriculture Proud blog while Ryan is finishing his Master’s degree. You can read all about it and learn how to participate here<\/a>. This blog post first appeared on Agriculture Proud on September 18th.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

On the last day of August, #FlatRyan got in on a little cover crop planting on our farm. Saturday was pretty warm for Minnesota standards, but it was a good day to get some work done.\u00a0 We do things a little differently than most of our neighbors, which sometimes leads to many questions. We farm organic row crops, so we follow different rules. One of those rules is a three crop rotation.\u00a0 Each year, we have approximately one-third field corn, one-third soybeans, and one-third small grain (wheat, and a mix of barley & field peas).\u00a0 We use cover cropping to help lock in nutrients, for weed control, and to prevent soil erosion.<\/p>\n

The field we were working in had been a barley and field pea field.\u00a0 The barley and peas had been harvested, the straw baled, and manure applied for next year\u2019s corn crop.\u00a0 The manure was worked into the soil with a deep till chisel plow before we seeded oats with a broadcast spreader. The oats were worked in with the field cultivator, which was set to go only an inch or two deep.\u00a0 We were then ready to try something we\u2019ve never done before.<\/p>\n

#FlatRyan, Pongo the Rat Terrier, and I took the Ranger across the road to check in with Jonathan and see how he was doing.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

We have been seeding Tillage Radish with our oats for a few years. Tillage Radish is different from the radishes you grow in your garden. A Tillage Radish has a pretty strong tap root that can break up compacted layers in the soil. The root keeps nutrients locked up over the winter, and when the plant dies, it leaves a hole the size of the radish that the corn plant\u2019s roots will be able to use to grow bigger.<\/p>\n

<\/a>