Green wheat

wesslpointer

wesslpointer

New member
Ive read where in some states 70% of hen pheasants nest in green wheat. Is it the same as winter wheat? DU is high on winter wheat for duck nesting. Is it as good as alfalfa was before they added another cutting?
 
Early cut alfalfa is a death trap for pheasants. For alfalfa to have the highest feed value, it has to be cut with 10% or less of the field in bloom, this also reduces the possibility of blister beetles, unfortunately that peak passes while most hens are setting or have young broods. Modern harvesting equipment with crimpers and wet baling equipment make brood rearing in alfalfa precarious at best. Flushing whips, etc. provide little safety from the reaper, only safety is waiting till the broods are reared. Winter wheat's maturity cycle normally allows for hatching and a good start for broods prior to harvest.
 
oldandnew said:
Early cut alfalfa is a death trap for pheasants. For alfalfa to have the highest feed value, it has to be cut with 10% or less of the field in bloom, this also reduces the possibility of blister beetles, unfortunately that peak passes while most hens are setting or have young broods. Modern harvesting equipment with crimpers and wet baling equipment make brood rearing in alfalfa precarious at best. Flushing whips, etc. provide little safety from the reaper, only safety is waiting till the broods are reared. Winter wheat's maturity cycle normally allows for hatching and a good start for broods prior to harvest.
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IF A farmer also has A Pheasant hunting operation wouldn't that off set the partial loss of letting the alfalfa go to bloom on the first cut? There would be one less cutting and bailing less fuel and fertilizer? expense. He might make it up with pheasant production? I think we need to look at what foreign oil is really costing .
 
wesslpointer said:
Ive read where in some states 70% of hen pheasants nest in green wheat. Is it the same as winter wheat? DU is high on winter wheat for duck nesting. Is it as good as alfalfa was before they added another cutting?
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Green wheat is usually winter wheat. Way up north I understand they grow some spring wheat. In Kansas it's all winter wheat.
 
Alfalfa is tested and sold on RFV, ( relative feed value), it drops in protien, palatability, nutrition content as it gets mature. There is a financial price to pay for waiting, could be as much as $200 per ton or approximately $600 an acre. More loss if irrigated. If blister beetles arrive to eat alfalfa aphids, it will be unuseable, if blister beetles are present in the crimped, and baled hay, even in minute quantities, they will fatally poison livestock. Hard for a hunting operation to make up that, unless your willing to spend $200 per pound for pheasants. It's all economics.
 
oldandnew said:
Alfalfa is tested and sold on RFV, ( relative feed value), it drops in protien, palatability, nutrition content as it gets mature. There is a financial price to pay for waiting, could be as much as $200 per ton or approximately $600 an acre. More loss if irrigated. If blister beetles arrive to eat alfalfa aphids, it will be unuseable, if blister beetles are present in the crimped, and baled hay, even in minute quantities, they will fatally poison livestock. Hard for a hunting operation to make up that, unless your willing to spend $200 per pound for pheasants. It's all economics.
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Why did they get one less cutting years ago? Less fertilizer?
 
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Until the advent and common use mower-conditioners, disc mowers, windrowers, round balers, flippers, wet bag baling, silage wrap, et.al. Hay was baled with basically a sickle bar mower, 7-9 foot rake, and a square baler. Crop had to be dry, as can be testified to by any farm boy who have to continously back up the baler and clear the soggy clump from the feeder. Now we have rapid drying equipment, fancy tedders, which along with crimping, especially in alfalfa, allows for dry harvesting under less than ideal weather conditions, silage wrapping will allow for harvest under even worse conditions. More latitude and opportunity to harvest alfalfa varieties which like everything else, are constantly being improved to produce bigger yields, earlier growth, and hardier plant with a longer growing season.
 
Winter wheat would make good nesting especially if it is no tilled. Spring wheat is too late. Alfalfa is tough to do right. I cut slow and not all the way to the ground, and I still have to close my eyes and go. We have so many more pheasants than we used to that there is bound to be alot of casualties. This year I planted some CRP next to alfalfa. Hopefully that will help in the future.
 
Has PF looked for a strain of alfalfa that would start out slower in the spring but come on Strong in summer? How much does the improvements in fertiliser have to do with the improved spring growth? Corn used to be nee hi by 4 of July know its shoulder HI
 
wesslpointer said:
Has PF looked for a strain of alfalfa that would start out slower in the spring but come on Strong in summer? How much does the improvements in fertiliser have to do with the improved spring growth? Corn used to be nee hi by 4 of July know its shoulder HI
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I can't speak for anyone else but I never fertilize my alfalfa. The improvements are genetic.
 
I agree we top dress Boron, annually in our alfalfa, but do not need additional fertilization. Alfalfa has a big and deep tap root, fixes nitrogen, but requires specific harvest protocols to survive and prosper. Big research in alfalfa's and lespedeza's is to try to find or develop varieties that store more nutrition in the stem, an rootball. Stem is mostly filler, all the nutrition is in the leaf.
 
This is my 2011 alfalfa fertilizer application.
We have light soil, with little clay sub soil.
With some timely rain and warm temps we raise about as good of crops as anywhere.:)

25-0-60-S=10-B=1-Lime
21-0-0 AMM SUL
46-0-0 UREA
0-0-60 Potash
Pellime 100 lbs PA
Boron 14.3%
 
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