Northern IL 2012

Dr. Joel Gruver

WIU – Agriculture

j-gruver@wiu.edu

Cover crops for row crop

systems in Northern IL

Corn production on land classified as HEL by NRCS

200 - 12,000

12,000 – 37,000

37,000 - 62,000

> 62,000

Acres per county

https://www.agronomy.org/publications/aj/articles/96/1/1

County < 1 *T 1-2*T > 2*T

Boone 91 6 2

Bureau 99 1 0

Caroll 84 12 4

DeKalb 94 6 0

Henry 83 10 6

JoDavies 83 12 5

Kendall 97 2 0

LaSalle 97 3 0

Lee 97 2 0

McHenry 93 6 1

Ogle 88 11 1

Stephenson 87 11 3

Winnebago 93 6 1

Erosion is a serious issue in some

parts of northern IL

http://www.swcs.org/documents/filelibrary/BeyondTreport.pdf

45-50% highly resistant to decomposition

30-35% slowly decomposable

About 15% rapidly decomposable

5-10% OM

> 75% highly resistant to decomposition

<20% slowly decomposable

<5 % rapidly decomposable

2-5% OM

Prairie soil Farm field

Have you observed the impact of management on your farm?

lb

s o

f g

rain

per

lb o

f N

Yield per unit of N has increased over the last 30 years

Some IL farmers consistently harvest more than

75 lbs of grain (1.3 bu) for each lb of N applied

?

So why does

nutrient

pollution from

agriculture

continue to be

such a serious

problem

in IL?

Has your farm ever

looked like this in the last

3 years?

Dissipate large amounts of ag

chemicals into the environment…

sometimes the consequences are

severe !

http://mckusicklake.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/2007_0327image0001.JPG

Or this?

Increasing yield by installing drainage

By Mindy Ward, Missouri Farmer Today

BOONVILLE --- For more than 100 years, the

Hoff family has fought to farm wet areas of their

fields.

For Eddie Hoff, the fourth generation to farm the

creek bottom ground in Cooper County, the loss

of yield and added expense of working the

ground was ultimately affecting his bottom line.

“We were losing 60 to 70 bushels per acre in

some spots,” he says.

We were working the ground over and over. I

just wanted to no-till and save some cost.”

So, he decided to drain the soils with pattern tile.

Could this story be about your farm?

Yield maps

have made

drainage

problems

more

obvious

Northern IL

contains a

lot of soils

that are

prone to

nitrate

leaching

Peak uptake > 10 lbs of

N/ac/day for high yield corn

REDUCTION POTENTIAL

combine summer annuals with winter annuals

Drainage practices should be combined

with practices that reduce leaching

Cover crops

Less loss Less loss

Bare

fallo

w

Kaspar et al. J. Environ. Qual. 36:1503-1511

The science is clear - cover crops can reduce nitrate

leaching at lower cost than most other practices!

$

What is innovation??

VS

This type of

innovation must be

used on millions of

acres to pay for R&D

Home grown innovation

that fits your acres

adopt ≠ adapt

Are you an early adopter?

Are you a master adapter?

Farmers that make cover crops work

tend to be master adapters!

Have you

attended a

cover crop

field day?

If not, make

plans to

attend one

in 2012

How many of you are “Ag Talkers”?

If you can’t make it to a field day,

learn about cover crop innovation

through participating in on-line

discussions

Using cover crops to capture multiple benefits

requires more management

There are few profits in idiot-proof systems

Cover crops are

not idiot-proof!

The

most tried and true

cover cropping system

in the Midwest region

Frost seeded red

clover

Traditional cover cropping in the Midwest

A lot more cover crops would get planted if we all had a several

month window of opportunity following small grain harvest

corn

soy

Corn and soybeans now cover > 90% of some IL counties

Spreading cover crop seed with fertilizer

Seeding cover

crops with liquid

manure

Seeding cover crops with a vertical tillage tool

Student: Which cover crops have you tried? how many acres? following/preceding which crops? Joe Nester replied: We just inter-seeded 14,000 acres of corn and soybeans with annual ryegrass. We used a helicopter service out of Minnesota to seed it. We used annual ryegrass a year ago, seeding with drills after wheat and soybeans, but the planting date was too late to wait after beans. Excellent where seeded after wheat about Sept. 1. Our experience is limited, but the idea is really taking off, to hold the soil in place over the winter, keep nutrients within the field, and help with timely no-till planting in the spring.

The CC planting methods shown on the

previous slides are only feasible for a limited #

of acres after harvest in the Corn Belt

Other options are clearly needed!

Photo from Joe Nester

Farmers have been using aerial seeding

to improve post-harvest grazing for a

long time

Barkant Turnips-3 lbs

Rye 2 Bu

Airplane $8/Acre

Corn 183 Bu/acre

Atrazine 1 lb

Partner April 28

Cliff Schuette’s farm in S IL

Hunter

Forage brassicas have good cover crop potential

http://www.jennifermackenzie.co.uk/2005/12/bra

ssicas.html

Set-up for efficient aerial seeding in SE IA

Steve Nebel

Steve

Nebel

Steve Nebel

IA and IL Aerial Applicator Survey (May-June 2010)

Name Location Experience w/CC Cost

Cady Aerial Spray Rock Falls, IL

no exp., no customer

interest $8.00/a norm app $8.50/a cc

Benoit Aerial

Spraying Kankakee, IL turnips and rye $8.00/a norm app $10.00/a cc

Franks Flying

Service Morrison, IL ryegrass and c. rye $8.00/a norm app $10.00/a cc

Reeds Fly-on

Farming Mattoon, IL

yes, c. rye, small part

of business $8.00/a norm app $12.00/a cc

Killiam Flying

Service Carlinville, IL

rye, wheat on beans,

rye on corn $8.00/a norm app $10.00/ac

or 10/lb

Curless Flying

Service Astoria, IL ryegrass and turnips $8-15.00/a all app.

Klein Flying

Service

St. Francisville,

IL annual rye and turnips ~$12.50/a cc,

$9.00/a liquid app

Agriflite Services Wakarusa, IN rye, wheat, ryegrass ave $15.00/a for cc app.

Al's Aerial

Spraying Ovid, MI rye and wheat $10-15.00/a cc

$10.00/a liquid

Don Birky’s

seeder in

Central IL

Don and Matt Birky’s unique

highboy with 10 feet and six

inches of clearance could attract

a crowd for its high-rising

maneuvers, but the father-son

team created the special

equipment for a tough job.

The highboy, dubbed High Roller,

was developed to air seed

legumes and other cover crops

into standing corn in August. The

Birkys, who operate On Track

Farming Inc. in rural Gibson City,

put the highboy through its paces

last week.

“I have been building

a seeder to overseed

cover crops into corn

& beans. I'm using a

Hagie STS 12 with a

Gandy Orbit Air seed

box. I can cover 90

feet / 36 rows and the

hopper holds 65 bu. “

Andy Ambriole’s

Highboy air

seeder

“This is the last and greenest field I did. Still has a little time to go yet, but

it should make some corn. Most other fields are brown with grain

moisture, I'm guessing, in the low 20's. The ground is getting more light,

so we'll see if that makes a difference.”

“It's kinda hard to tell the seed from the corn pollen. The

big lighter pieces are pollen. The smaller darker ones are

ryegrass and the little orange balls are crimson clover. The

seed mix was 80/20 ryegrass/clover”

Rig for mid-summer over-seeding into corn in Ontario

Red clover can be frost seeded into small

grains in early spring, over seeded into corn

in early-summer and over seeded into

soybeans just before leaf drop.

New bulletin from Penn State

Planting while harvesting

Dwayne Beck’s set-up

for planting while

harvesting

Combining striptill with cover crops

on Ron Neumiller’s farm

Cover crops planted while stripping

on Joe Rothermel’s farm

Small-seeded legumes and grasses can be

planted using the insecticide boxes of most

corn/soybean planters.

Just like granular insecticides, many of the

small-seeded forages can be accurately

metered directly in-furrow or banded just in

front of the press wheel. Setting the double disk

openers about 1/2” to 3/4” deep and running

the seed in-furrow will give the best seed-to-soil

contact and probably the best chance of

success.

Cereal rye inter-seeded with soybean

for in-row weed control

Cereal rye and several other CC species that require

vernalization will be planted over soybeans rows

using the insecticide boxes on our planter in 2012

Terry Taylor planted radishes on 30” rows w/ hairy vetch,

crimson clover and Austrian winter peas in fall 2010

Terry Taylor’s new bio-strip-till rig

Planters do a much

better job than a drill

A Wheat-Corn-Bean rotation with "tillage" done via RADISHES (!!) into the

wheat stubble every third year! All done with a single 60 ft

30" planter, RTK and one 60ft toolbar. Fertilizer efficiency is very good with

banding, split application and no fall losses.

I came away from there thinking I have seen the future of production

agriculture, at least in some areas.

Sorry to go on so long but this was a very interesting day.

The field of tillage radishes was incredible. The size of those things does

really seem to break up the soil at least as deep as many tillage tools.

I think this may be the future for many folks…

I am no longer a skeptic!

A Wheat-Corn-Bean rotation with "tillage" done via

RADISHES (!!) into the wheat stubble every third year! All

done with a single 60 ft 30" planter, RTK and one 60ft

toolbar. Fertilizer efficiency is very good with banding, split

application and no fall losses.

I came away from there thinking I have seen the future of

production agriculture, at least in some areas.

Sorry to go on so long but this was a very interesting day.

The field of tillage radishes was incredible. The size of

those things does really seem to break up the soil at least

as deep as many tillage tools.

I think this may be the future for many folks and Joel,

Steve, Ed and others:

I am no longer a skeptic!

A Wheat-Corn-Bean rotation with "tillage" done via

RADISHES (!!) into the wheat stubble every third year! All

done with a single 60 ft 30" planter, RTK and one 60ft

toolbar. Fertilizer efficiency is very good with banding, split

application and no fall losses.

I came away from there thinking I have seen the future of

production agriculture, at least in some areas.

Sorry to go on so long but this was a very interesting day.

The field of tillage radishes was incredible. The size of

those things does really seem to break up the soil at least

as deep as many tillage tools.

I think this may be the future for many folks and Joel,

Steve, Ed and others:

I am no longer a skeptic!

8625

views!!

November 2010

Radishes planted on the WIU/Allison

Organic Research farm on 30” rows

using milo plates in our corn planter

Cover crop system Relative

corn yield

Volunteer oats 79%

Radishes planted on 30” 99%

Radishes drilled on 7.5” 91%

Some 2011 data

Cover

Crops

Adapted from Magdoff and Weil (2004)

Cover crops are multi-functional!

Feed

livestock

Grazing

brassicas, clovers, small grains, a. ryegrass, sorghum-sudan

Nutrient scavenging/cycling

brassicas, small grains, annual ryegrass

Bio-drilling

brassicas, sugarbeet, sunflower,

sorghum-sudan sweet clover, alfalfa

N-fixation

clovers, vetches, lentil, winter pea, chickling vetch, sun hemp, cowpea,

soybean

Bio-activation/fumigation

brassicas, sorghum-sudan, sun hemp, sesame

Weed suppression

brassicas, sorghum-sudan, cereal rye, buckwheat

Matching specific objectives with species

#1 way to make CC pay

Managing cover crops profitably, 3rd edition

Start planning today for next fall!

Be realistic about

potential cover crop

challenges

How will I seed the cover crop?

What will soil temperature and moisture conditions be like?

What weather extremes and field traffic must it tolerate?

Will it winterkill in my area?

Should it winterkill, to meet my goals?

What kind of regrowth can I expect?

How will I kill it and plant into it?

Will I have the time to make this work?

What’s my contingency plan—and risks—if the

cover crop doesn’t establish or doesn’t die on schedule?

Do I have the needed equipment and labor?

Key considerations