There are these crazy guys on @X that grow multiple crops together to capture more ☀️ We all have the same amount...why would diversity, arrangement, sequencing, and succession planning make a difference? Call me crazy...but when we have autonomous 6620 4 row heads shelling 130-140% higher yielding corn it isn't magic... its using that 🧠 in plants to our advantage

Same spot. The disservice nearly every piece of agricultural literature has is its inability to spectrum out the data For example let's say I'm doing a soybean spacing study. Some sites win in 20's some in 10's ... the avg in 30" rows is 3.4 bu behind. (Made up) 2 ... or 3 pieces to this. Monocrops are a different ball game. If I have lighter soils I probably want narrow rows, some height, and might not want to push the summer too much as water might get scarce to fill out. Heavier soils, fertility bring on risk of too much vegetation leading to inefficient tall plants, lodging, and white mold. 30" may be the best...but keeping them clean of waterhemp can be expensive. Maturity wise narrows favor early (they'll get more sun). Wide rows full season. The mental blocker that many have in minds through osmosis is that we have to stick on script with something that has data. The problem is there isn't that much data with intercropping. There isn't any equipment specifically designed to optimize the system as well... so we use data that has little to do with the objective and equipment made for monocrops. We've got wheels running stuff over .... or guys turning everything into pizza cutters. Where we've got to go or get to is full out research of the whole system w/o all the bondage of the people that want to sell you things. The goal isn't to out produce your neighbor it's to out efficient which isn't in the best interest of the farmers of farmers. So what is the different between 10" rows or 20" 30" 2040" or my new favorite 36" solid w/22.5.." wheat strips between? You will have to do your own research...but I can tell you some non pleasant truths The shittier your wheat the better your beans will be in dryer years. In wetter years wheat is like an oxygen mask for your beans. Exploit the curve means look at what is needed to grow 120 bu wheat...or 100 or whatever is considered good and start taking out things. What happens with half the seed? Half the N? Half the PK? What happens if you plant with a strip till bar? How do these affect costs? How do these affect the performance of the soybeans? How can I leverage the presence of a cereal to lower the costs of soybean production? Can I band my seeds and fertilizer and use wheat as weed control only applying chemical in the space of soybeans? If I do that how can I plant my soybeans to lower the chemical in that space? What combination of things produce the most margin? Can I be "dead inside" w/o the ego driven mentality of high yields (especially on the front end) and turn my cereal into a workhorse of water management, weed control, and thatch to reflect sunlight, keep soil cool, and actually absorb water and keep it around mid-late summer? That's the play. Stretch the imagination which for me will be ultra early wheat, banded fertility for it, banded spray in the soybean production area and equidistant spacing to expedite canopy for efficient weed control and solar (keeps the ground from getting hot..pan evaporation as well)

You can only sell the elevator 15% water before you get docked Depending on exactly where you farm and your soils you can pull so much water out of the soil in the form of a cereal intercrop before your other intercrop is “docked” in yield. In my area I’d say that number is around 80 bushels worth of wheat in the black ground…and less and less in lighter soil. You can store water in soil to an extent…but in order to have healthy soil you have to have plants. I think we should mirror supply with demand. The cracks allow the soil to breath in that 78% N air. It also drinks thunderstorms.

When a man with more common sense asks me why I want to grow 1/2 of 2 crops in a year instead of a full one.