A major use of crabgrass forage is as the summer component of a winter pasture-crabgrass double crop. We have used various methods to plant the winter pasture (usually cereal rye) into the crabgrass: special no-till drills or seedbeds prepared with tools like disks, chisels, or field cultivators, then refirmed and drilled.

Part of our approach has been to keep tillage to a minimum, yet produce a good rye stand. Moneys not spent on tillage could, at least theoretically, be saved or spent on better crop maintenance. We often have used tandem tillages, sometimes with up to three tools running in series behind the tractor.

This type of seedbed and planting procedure made a relatively soft seedbed, but rye production and stand percentage were better when the seedbed was firmer. Therefore, we conducted unreplicated field trials in the fall of 1994 to test five double-crop planting procedures. The table presents a summary of these results.

In the same location on September 20, treatments 1 through 4 were planted with a standard 7 1/2-inch-row disk drill equipped with a fertilizer box and press wheels. Treatment 5 was planted on September 15 about 1/2 mile away; the equipment used was a 7 1/2-inch-row no-till drill with a fertilizer box and press wheels. All treatments were sprayed for grass and weed control just before planting, received 100 pounds of 10-34-0 banded starter fertilizer per acre at planting, and were planted with 112 to 115 pounds of pure live seed per acre and topdressed with 100 pounds of nitrogen per acre on September 29.

Treatment 1 (table 1) was obviously inferior; most rye seedlings died, probably because of short-term drought during the seedling stage and possible allelopathy (toxicity) from the crabgrass residue.

Treatment 2 was acceptable, but stands were inconsistent and production was only 75 percent that of treatments 3 to 5, which were all good and reasonably similar. Double rolling (packing) to refirm the soil for treatment 4 was not advantageous; good rains during most of September and October could have been the cause. Growth was lush and 87.6 to 89.4 percent water in mid-November.

Our basic approach of disking, rolling, and drilling is still an upper level choice and can be done in one trip if equipment, which does not have to be elaborate, is rigged properly. We used to do it with an old 730 John Deere, an I-beam drag, and the drill all hooked up in tandem. The 877 pounds of rye available on November 15 could conceivably be converted to 110 pounds of stocker beef yield per acre. Of course, there is more production after this initial stockpiling. These pastures usually produce 4,000 to 6,000 pounds of rye pasture.

I would like to credit Bret Flatt, Wayne Dobbs, Chuck Coffey, Robert Carpenter, and Devlon Ford for assistance in these trials.