Tillage Radish Cover Crop

www.prairiefarmreport.com
Features: Kevin Elmy a farmer near Saltcoats, Saskatchewan was beginning to experiment with tillage radish as a cover crop on his farm when we visited in the summer of 2012. At the time of our visit Kevin was finding the radish was easily penetrating compacted soil and was expanding and easily cracking the subsoil allowing for better movement of soil nutrients for subsequent crops.

[@RichBurris2]

I love the use of cover crops. I'm not a farmer but just a resident on this planet that relies on a guy like you to feed me and my family. Your cover crop prevents the exposure of soil to the wind and dry air. Bare land adds to warming of the air, Cover crops fix nitrogen and takes CO2 from the air and helps fix it in the soil. So thanks for your hard work and openness to new methods and new ideas.

[@augenmaugen]

Agreed. So many people in my area are getting religious on rock scaped yards to save the planet, but they don’t realize that hard, hot dirt with no nutrient production isn’t great either. I believe that for folks who don’t want a lawn, various ground over plants are the way to go (perhaps prettier ones than tiller radish, at least for the front yard 😊).

[@anthonybanda8192]

We use tillage radishes on 75 percent of our 3500 acres during the winter. We found that they boost our soybean yields by about 20 percent. We plant winter rye and winter wheat and sometimes wild carrots. We plants ours in early September following soybean harvest.

[@rebechart]

Can these break through quack grass?

[@anthonybanda8192]

@@rebechart Im not sure because if the grass has a thick mat it won't be able to penetrate. We vertical till the ground ahead of the radishes with a Salford VT.

[@David-pn9ys]

you plant wild carrots? fascinating, why?

[@anthonybanda8192]

@@David-pn9ys they have deep roots and can eliminate some compaction naturally. They leave channels where corn or been roots can follow . We mostly plant them after wheat In July. The winter here kills them off without needing any chemical or tillage. We do radishes red clover and rye as well .

[@JaredLung]

Where do you farm at?

[@covercropkings539]

Its hard to beat that value of cover crops. We really need to spread the word and get more producers to use them!

[@oilersridersbluejays]

They use up too much moisture though.

[@tiredowalkin]

We no-till these Daikon radishes along with oats into burned downed( 2,4-D and glyphosate) wheat or oat stubble in early August and it sure controls weeds and makes planting next spring very desirable for soybeans or corn. No herbicide is required in the spring to kill this cover crop as a good freeze kills it in late fall. Planting rate Oats =27lbs Radish=2 lbs per acre. Indiana

[@forced4motorsports]

Nature's broad fork.

[@TheMarky26]

Very cool..

[@edchoi2428]

You can make good kimchee with root and leaves.

[@EmpoweredLeaders]

Wait. so does tilling just to plant cover crop kinda defeat the point? Or does instant plant succession right after harvest help.

[@victorandrews9790]

Can you plant tillage radish in late winter/early spring?

[@anthonyburke5656]

Shades of the medieval rotational strip farming, don’t forget the hedgerows

[@Nobody-11B]

I have heavy forest soil and an incredible amount of stones/gravel/rocks.
Will they be able to dig into this type of soil?

[@briancampbell2514]

They'll go through it with no problem.

[@howardbartel108]

in western oklahoma tillage radishes just push up with a tiny root going down. No till among worst compacted soils. we rip every 3 years

[@doncook3584]

Western Oklahoma have that red clay and too little rain? Western Nebraska is ranch country with very little grains once you’re a mile from river

[@SENOJMADA]

Mix it with winter rye good food plot

[@wollewatz]

Would you say that Tillage Radish can replace mechanical subsoiling?

[@oilersridersbluejays]

If you’re talking about solonetzic soil then I don’t know. I’m curious about that too, but I think they would just go down a few inches to the hard pan and go sideways. That hard pan turns into absolute concrete.

[@doncook3584]

Good steward of the land. More profitable when you don’t run that hunk of iron around the farm

[@russsherwood5978]

can you use this as a forage/graze?

[@jeremyjames83]

3:30

[@Nightowl5454]

Brassicas can be toxic in higher quantities if they ingest too much.

[@poilochien]

daikon radish are very tasty : kind of sugar radish ...

[@YawehthedragondogofEL]

Daikon is tasty in a stir fry.

[@FlemishBloke]

lets use healthy food and let i rot, then grow some industrialized crops