My neighbor is growing a bunch of hemp this year.

[Alleycat72]

He came and had a talk with me about my crops. I plant about 1.9 acres of corn just across the street. It is only for deer hunting. The problem is corn worms.  They don't bother me, but they have and will damage his hemp. He cannot use any pesticides. First off, he said it's my land and if I want to plant corn that i should.  However, if I am willing to plant an alternative crop he and his partner would be happy to pay for the seed and help out in any way I may need. The question I have is  what would be as good as corn? I've thought about some large lad soybeans. 5 foot tall soybeans, but they don't pull deer as much as corn after the first frost. The crop also needs to be tall so that it provides cover. Any good ideas? 

[TomInMN]

What if you planted a mixture of tall beans and some type of brassica? Not all mixed together, but laid out so both will grow and the deer will feel covered and have food after a good frost...

[Shorty]

Sunflower or tall sorghum with Iron Clay Peas and Lablab is supposed to be a good mix.  It's lots of protein and the sunflower/ sorghum gives the beans something to climb.  It should provide lots of cover too.  Lablab is drought tolerant too.

Edited April 12, 2020 by Shorty

[TomInMN]

Something called Sunn Hemp is supposed to be good for deer and kids fairly tall. I don't know anything about it, but your neighbor might...

[TomInMN]

And I meant to add this earlier: Your neighbor sounds like a pretty reasonable guy, as do you. Thanks for posting up a story along the lines of "Two neighbors have rational, reasonable discussion about mutual land use, try to come to mutually agreeable solution."

I think that's still pretty common, but we don't hear enough about it these days...

[Raoul]

I had a neighbor that grew a bunch of hemp once. I believe he served 36 months. Of course it was in the early 80's and the buzz was pretty awesome.....

[Alleycat72]

1 hour ago, Shorty said:

Sunflower or tall sorghum with Iron Clay Peas and Lablab is supposed to be a good mix.  It's lots of protein and the sunflower/ sorghum gives the beans something to climb.  It should provide lots of cover too.  Lablab is drought tolerant too.

Probably going to do some sunflowers just because my kids went crazy when I mentioned them. The neighbor uses them as pest control. They attract birds that eat bugs.

[DaveTN]

2 hours ago, alleycat72 said:

My neighbor is growing a bunch of hemp this year.

My friend did that on his farm. But then they made him go to prison for a couple of years, and he quit. 

[gregintenn]

Plant pot. It will cross pollinate with his hemp and make it more desirable.

[TomInMN]

Guys, I think @alleycat72 is trying to keep deer around, not teenagers.

[Dirtshooter]

Since you are going to plant sunflowers, sounds like the makings of a great dove hunt. I and my SX2 are available to keep them under control.

[Chucktshoes]

4 minutes ago, TomInMN said:

Guys, I think @alleycat72 is trying to keep deer around, not teenagers.

Of course he isn’t, his name isn’t Jeffrey Epstein. 

[Alleycat72]

I've got almost 2 acres of alfalfa. I'm thinking let him pick up the tab on 1.5 ish acres of soybean seed and I'll also 1.5 acres plant peas with sunflowers. The sunflowers will help him out also. 

[Ronald_55]

Alternate option.Your neighbor can't use pesticides on the hemp but can you apply it to the corn? He stays organic and you get corn. You can always mix some sunflowers in. 

[Alleycat72]

12 minutes ago, Ronald_55 said:

Alternate option.Your neighbor can't use pesticides on the hemp but can you apply it to the corn? He stays organic and you get corn. You can always mix some sunflowers in. 

He said that's one of the issues they are running into. The corn worms get pushed out of the corn and migrate to the hemp. They are literally picking them off by hand. Now if they would naturally go to the hemp without a normal food source, I have no idea. My thoughts are that it doesn't hurt me much to plant something else.  I may even learn something and do better this year. I can always go back  next year if I need too. I also know nothing about hemp and it's production , so don't take anything I say about it as the gospel. 

[RED333]

 

Edited April 13, 2020 by RED333
Because I can

[ReeferMac]

A friend of mine 'went in' on a grow operation with some friends last year. All legal, perfectly legit... still sitting on the product. No market ... I like it though, nice change of pace!