Hey Brian! I've learned a few lessons after three years of messing around with cover crops. Mainly, vetch sowed that late in October will be pretty hit and miss. Depending on the type of winter we have, you may see some in the spring, but to get a good thick stand it really needs to be planted by mid Sept. I've never planted winter peas, so I'm useless on that subject! As for the rye, that will come up in the spring almost guaranteed, even if you don't see any fall growth. I've been amazed to see rye emerging from wet soil in March, three feet away from a snow drift that was still melting. The stuff is really resilient.

Should have waited 30 seconds for you to come to the same conclusion in the video. 😀

Hey Ben! If you live nearby, we might be able to arrange that, though it would depend on the quantity. You can always shoot me an email if you want to discuss it further. My address is RavenviewFarm@gmail.com

You know, I actually omitted the chains this year. The soil conditions were pretty good after harvest, and after both corn and soybeans I managed to plan my planting right before a rain event. Plus, it was early enough in the fall yet that I wasn't worried about the crop getting established. It's a rare thing in farming, but I guess conditions were so ideal that I didn't need them!

Our farm is 100 acres. About 64 acres of that is crop land. I’m a carpenter and general contractor, so I can always fall back on that if need be. Our farm is actually quite profitable though. Our equipment is paid for, land is paid for, and using these regenerative practices keeps our inputs lower than most farmers. We’ve cut our fertilizer use by at least 25%, reduced the amount of spray we need, and we market a healthy amount of our crops direct to customers each year, so we’re typically getting a higher than average price for the things we grow. I’m actually planning to step back from construction and farm full time in 2022 and see how it goes.

Hey Aaron. If I recall correctly, we were seeding 45 lbs of rye, and 8 lbs of vetch per acre. Corn was the intended crop for the spring. I guess the nice thing about posting older footage is I already have some hindsight. The rye did very well and came up beautifully in the spring. The vetch was really spotty. We did get some coming up, but I'm convinced that the planting date was just way too late. I've heard a lot of guys having better success with hairy vetch after small grains, and that around here in south-central MN, you want to get it in no later than mid September.

@@ravenviewfarm I recently discovered your channel, am about 3.5 hrs straight west of you in SD and have tried some things with hairy vetch too. On prevented planting one year I found out it can really grow if given enough time but of course that’s the challenge up here when we need to raise a cash row crop. I still have some hv seed in the shed I have ideas for so we’ll see. I’ve only seen a few so far but enjoy your videos. I’m a small acreage farmer too and appreciate the perspective you offer.

It’s a Truax model 812 I believe, built in 1985. Modern no-till drills are far superior, but they’re also extraordinarily expensive. We picked this one up used for $3,500 if I recall correctly.

@@ravenviewfarm that’s a steal of a deal, even used a 7-8’ is still pushing 10k. I’m currently in the very slow process of building my own 7’ drill

I’ve mentioned to Dad a couple of times that it would be nice to pick up 10 or 15 more acres in our neighborhood. We could handle that with our current equipment and it would give us a little boost. I’m in no rush though. Joel Salatin has a philosophy that I like, which goes something like, “Before you go looking for more land, take what you have and fill it up.” That’s what we’re focusing on right now. Getting some disused pastures back into shape, setting the stage for some livestock. Next year we’ll do several rounds of pastured broiler chickens. I’d like to add bees in a couple more years, and this coming spring we’ll do enough maple syrup to sell some. The point is, we can easily stack more enterprises on our current acreage without needing to spend a dime on land rent.

Great Job..