John Deere : Seeding Group

We recently conducted our first online John Deere Seeding Group Web talk. Thank you for taking the time to participate. During this live exchange, customers from all over asked our experts from the John Deere Seeding Group to respond to questions regarding

Weed Control
Question : We have an acre size garden - what can we put down to control the weeds without hurting the corn, tomatoes, etc.?
Answer :Contact your county extension agent. There are not a lot of herbicides available that are labeled for a wide spectrum of vegetable crops. Your best solution may be cold steel!

Ground Temperature
Question : What should the ground temperature be before seeding pea barley mix and alfalfa grass mix?
Answer: All these crops can be established in very cool soil conditions. A pea-barley mix will germinate best when the top inch of soil is 50-64 F, but it is OK to plant once soil temps are 40-50 F. Young pea and barley plants are very resistant to frost. Spring plantings of alfalfa-grass mixes can be made anytime after the danger of frost is past, regardless of soil temperature.

Reseeding Pastures
Question: I live in north east Tennessee and my farm consists of primary clay/sandy soil, I’m preparing to reseed my pastures, what would be the best grass or combination of grasses to plant for year round grazing for horses? Horses are in pasture 50% of the time and pasture rotation techs. are being used.
Answer: I regret that none of our able staff has any experience in this area. Contact your county extension agent, or contact Dr. Gary Bates at the University of Tennessee (865) 974-7208 gbates@utk.edu. He is a forage specialist who should be able to help. Good luck.

Overseeding pastures
Question: Being new to ranching, please forgive my ignorance. That said please riddle me this. My pasture was sprigged last spring therefore is now 1 year old at this point. I want to know if it is possible to overseed this pasture for a winter cover crop without destroying the pasture. Since I only have 40 acres the purchase of a grain drill doesn’t make much since. Surely there is a different way.
Answer: Without knowing more details, this is difficult to answer. Overseeding can be risky. It is often difficult to get the overseeded crop established, and if it is established it can sometimes persist longer than desired. Even if it is a cool-season cover crop seeded in a warm-season grass, the cover crop can suppress early season growth of the warm-season and use a lot of valuable moisture. I would suggest contacting your state forage extension specialist or your county agent. They will be familiar with your conditions and will be able to give the best recommendation.

Twin Row Corn
Question: I am trying twin row corn this year...what is John Deere’s experience with this?
Answer: Twin-row corn has been researched for at least 20 years. The great majority of university research indicates that there is no yield advantage to twin-row corn. In addition, it is more difficult to harvest, requires higher seeding rates, and in-furrow insecticides exceed their labeled rates per acre. With that said, there is still a lot of ongoing research into twin-row corn, especially in the great plains (Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Texas). In these regions, there have been some more positive results recently which merit further studies.

Research -- where do we do some?
Question: Do you promote your products with JD based research, or do you use any universities. IF so, which ones?
Answer: Although John Deere Seeding conducts lots of research in-house, customers are often skeptical of company-based research so we depend heavily on many major ag schools. Some that we rely on the most include the University of Nebraska, Kansas State University, Iowa State University, University of Illinois, University of Wisconsin, The Ohio State University, Western Illinois University, Penn State University, Auburn University, Purdue University, UC Davis, and the University of Tennessee.

Web site
Question: I like your Agronomic section on your Web page. Please keep it refreshed...
Answer: Thank you very much for the comment. The site takes a lot of effort so we are always glad to hear it is being utilized. We are actively working to expand the site and keep it up-to-date. Very soon we will have a new feature on the site called "Ask the Agronomist", where you will be able to email questions to us and we will provide detailed responses. Hope to hear from you!

Closing
Thanks to all of the customers who posed great questions for our online chat. It is important that we keep in touch with our customer group and this forum provides us a great opportunity to interact with everyone in a timely fashion. We hope to conduct another chat session in the near future. Best wishes and good luck to everyone for a quick and safe spring. Please keep in touch and always remember the real experts are in your neighborhood, your local John Deere Dealer! Thanks!!