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This is a slightly modified version of a presentation that I shared at The Organic Conference in La Crosse, WI
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Haphazard
cover cropping
What am I
supposed to do
now?
“What cover
crop should I
plant ???”
Very common question received
by CC seed vendors in early fall
Well… what do you
want your cover
crops to do for you?
Cover
Crops
Adapted from Magdoff and Weil (2004)
Cover crops can do many things!
? ?
Increase
management
Host
pests
Become
a weed
Prevent
soil
drying
Dry out soil
excessively
Interfere w/
equipment
performance Suppress
crop growth
Tie up N
Add cost
Cover
Crops
Adapted from Magdoff and Weil (2004)
Good planning increases the likelihood of positive effects
and reduces the likelihood of negative effects.
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
GRAZING = #1 way to make cover crops pay!
Match CC objectives with species
Oats, turnips, annual ryegrass and wheat
Oats, turnips and cereal rye
Forage kale
Mystery brassica
Hu
nte
r
Have you used any forage brassicas
as cover crops?
Cover crops (winter or summer) can provide high-
quality forage and increase economic return and
farm diversity, but some farmers have been
reluctant to take this advantage due to perceived
“compaction” caused by animal trampling.
Grazing of cover crops can compact soil, but
not to the detrimental levels often perceived.
Franzluebbers AJ and JA Stuedemann. 2008.
Soil physical responses to cattle grazing cover
crops under conventional and no tillage in the
Southern Piedmont USA.
Soil and Tillage Research 100, 141-153.
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/tcoa/files/breakcrops_orgagr.pdf
Cover crops are not the missing puzzle piece(s)
in your current crop rotation(s)!
• Problems and opportunities for over 500 crop
sequences
• Characteristics of more than 60 crops and 70 weeds
• Crop diseases hosted by over 80 weed species
• Modes of transmission for 250 diseases of 24 crops
• Thirteen sample four- and five-year vegetable and
grain crop rotations Managing Crop Rotation Chart
with key tasks & steps
•Sample worksheets and calculations
• Step-by-step procedure for determining crop rotation
plans
Overview of book contents
Crop rotations
should evolve
not revolve
Start planning today! • Anticipate planting windows
• Match objectives with species
• Confirm seed availability
• Make sure seeding equipment is ready
• Identify realistic termination methods
• Allocate labor
• Develop contingency plans
Crop
planted
on 5/15
and
harvested
on 9/1
When can you plant CCs?
• Dormant seeding early or late winter
• Frost seeding
• In the spring
• When planting summer crops
• Prevent plant scenarios
• At last cultivation
• After small grains
• After vegetables
• After seed corn or silage corn
• Aerial or high clearance seeding into standing crops in late summer/early fall
• After long season crops
What is this CC?
Phacelia
Phacelia & Radish
Planted first week of September
Phacelia overseeded into standing
soybeans in early September
Phacelia does not like shade
Dormant seeding
demo plot
http://calshort-lamp.cit.cornell.edu/bjorkman/covercrops/spring-mustard.php
Klaas and Mary Martens,
organic innovators in
Central NY State, are
reporting excellent results
with frost-seeded
confectionary mustard
ahead of dry beans
Mustard variety trial at the Allison farm in early June 2011
Pacific Gold Ida Gold
Slower to mature Faster to mature
More biomass Less biomass
Mustards are very responsive to N
Mustards are easy to kill with tillage
Maceration is key for bio-fumigation effects
JD 730 Air-Disk drill on Jack Erisman’s farm in Pana, IL
Jack uses this rig to drill soybeans on 6" rows (~ 280,000/ac)
while also dropping about 2 bushel of rye and some
micronutrients
Planted before heavy rain Planted after heavy rain
Small amount of foxtail… almost no broadleaves
~ 20 bushels more yield
Lots of weeds but very few
towering monsters of maternity :->
Terminating spring planted oats with a soil finisher
~ 3 weeks before planting corn
Are you equipped to handle a situation like this?
10’ Howard Rotavator tilling ~ 3” deep with C blades
Complete kill after 1 pass
and 2 days of sun
Typical weather in spring 2009-2011 :-<
How would you prepare this field for planting corn?
Red Clover/Alfalfa/Orchardgrass
Mowing and allowing a half day of drying made a large difference in
the power required to incorporate with a rotavator
Moldboard plowing can be the best option
Soybeans no-tilled drilled in a pasture on Jack Erisman’s farm
Performance over Price • Buy CC seed on value not price
Vendor Cereal rye Annual
ryegrass Hairy vetch Medium red
clover WI 0.188 0.52 (0.69) 1.60 (1.98) 1.22 (1.62)
IL1 0.147 (0.179) 0.47 (0.63) 1.42 (1.65)
MN 0.153 (0.171) 0.50 (0.56) 1.70 (1.90) 1.66 (1.84)
NE1 0.157 (0.179) 0.55 (0.65) 2.10 (2.50) 1.65 (1.95)
IL2 (0.213) (0.75) (2.20) (2.60) IL3 0.188 (0.214) (0.70)
MO 0.197 0.46 1.47 1.21 IL4 (0.20) (0.60) (1.80) (1.75) IA (0.195) (0.62) (2.00) 2.00 IN (0.239) (0.75) (2.20)
(IL farmer) 0.125 0.48 1.05
Cover crop seed price survey from 2010 ($/lb)
Cheapest CC seed available is
normally VNS – variety not stated
Do you know the difference
between “variety name” and
“brand name”?
How important is uniform seed
size and vigor to you?
Reduce Risk • Enroll in programs that pay you to plant CCs
• Use time tested CC methods
• Use more than one method of planting CCs
• Plant mixtures/cocktails
• Grow some crops e.g. small grains,
vegetables, corn silage, shorter season
hybrids/varieties that are harvested early
• Irrigate
The
most tried and true
cover cropping system
in the Midwest region
Frost seeded red
clover
Traditional cover cropping in the Midwest
Drilling CC after small grain harvest
There are many options other than drilling
Magness Farm in Maryland
Annual ryegrass & radishes aerial
seeded into soybeans at leaf drop.
Aerial seeding is fast and relatively cheap
but more sensitive to weather
Effective multi-tasking or cover crop chaos???
http://greencoverseed.com/
cereal rye
crimson clover
hairy vetch
crimson clover
annual ryegrass
Aerial seeded
annual ryegrass
turnips
Beware of CC hype! • Cover crops are not a silver bullet solution
to any problem
The rock
star of
cover
crops!!!
With lots of space, moisture, fertility and time to
grow, individual radishes can get huge!
but a good stand of 1” radishes
will probably do more for your soil!
This is plenty big!!
#1 attribute may
be that they grow
very rapidly in
the fall and then
winterkill
Crop root density as affected by previous cover crop
Chen and Weil (2006)
Roots at ~ 40”
after 45 days
Soon to be released !
• much less top growth but deeper roots than cereal rye
• much less winter hardy than cereal rye
• can be difficult to kill with tillage
• can be a serious weed in small grains
Radishes are not the only good bio-driller!!
Learn from cover crop innovators
• Attend field days/host a field day
• Attend conferences
• Participate in internet forums
Field day at Steve Groff’s farm
Field day at Steve Groff’s farm
~ 120 profiles including ~ 20 organic farmers since 2008
Read about CCs in on-line forums
Subject Replies Views
> 50 threads and > 200,000 views in 2 months
Use precision planting
Planter Plate
White 60-cell sugar beet
Deere small sugar beet 4/64”
Case-IH sugar beet
Kinze 2000 and 3000 series small 60-cell milo
Kinze Edge Vac w/ e-sets 60-cell small sugar beet 1/16”
Monosem 6020 plate; vacuum set to 15
Our first
attempt at
bio-strip till
September 2008
Attempt #2 September 2009
Tillage radish on 30” rows with oats on 7.5” rows
November 2009
Attempt #3
Planting on
30” rows using
milo plates in
mid-August 2010
Cultivating/ridging
radishes in
October 2010
Ridges with
dead radishes in
spring 2011
Planting popcorn
on ridges
in May 2011
Planted
beautifully
but we decided to
replant after a
month of
relentless rain :-<
Radishes on 30” rows with volunteer oats in fall 2010
Radishes on 30” rows with volunteer oats in fall 2010
Spring 2011
Cover crop system Relative
corn yield
Volunteer oats 79%
Radishes planted on 30” 99%
Radishes drilled on 7.5” 91%
Corn following cover crop experiment
Attempt #4
October 2011
December 2011
Keep good records – Date of planting
– Seeding rates, drill settings…
– Take lots of photos!
My computer is about
to explode from cover
crop overload :->
Optimize fertility • Always inoculate legumes
• Inoculate non-legumes?
• Fertilize cover crops when
residual fertility is low
Hairy Vetch 3,260 lbs of DM/ac
141 lbs of N/ac
133 lbs of K/ac
18 lbs of P/ac
52 lbs of Ca/ac
18 lbs of Mg/ac
Slurry seeding cover crops in Michigan
Learn from research On-farm research
• Leave check strips - replicate if possible
• Work with universities/NRCS
Research station trials
• Make suggestions
• Pay attention to results
Cereal rye inter-seeded with soybean for
in-row weed control at the Allison Farm
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
No significant differences in yield between 20&40 lbs/a
of rye in row vs. 60 lbs broadcast vs. control
(all trt means > 40 bu/a)
Cover crops planted with
insecticide boxes while stripping
Joe Rothermel’s new rig
Wheat + radish trial at the Allison farm
November 2010
3 lb/a = 2 lb/a = 1 lb/a > 0 lb/c
~ 2.5 bu/a yield boost
Annual ryegrass variety trial
at the Allison farm
November 2010
Bruiser, Bounty and KB Royal had the most top growth
> 36”
ARG is tough to kill
mechanically
Early July 2009
Organic No-till research
at the Allison Farm
Early August 2009
Early November 2009
Plot yields ranged from 51.6 to 58.6 bu/ac
No significant differences between systems
November 2010
Plot yields ranged from 42-52 bu/ac
Significant foxtail pressure
but almost no broadleaf weeds
Early June 2011
We planted before
rolling in one set of
plots
15’ wide roller built by a local farmer
Mid-June 2011
Early July 2011
Our conventional-till beans
are looking good, right?
Unfortunately, there were lots of in-row weeds :-<
August 2011
November 2011
No-till bean plots averaged 43 bu/a
~ 10 bu/a higher than then next
highest treatment in this
experiment
Soybean health experiment – 6 locations across IL
Mustard
Rapeseed
Canola
Cereal rye
Cereal rye
November 2010
incorporated
pre-plant
no-till
Christmas Day 2011
Plans for 2012
Compare 1 vs. 2
pass planting,
200K vs. 300K,
all no-till
Good stand of
cereal rye
(1.5 bu/a drilled in
early October)
Cover crops generally require more management
than manure or purchased nutrient amendments
Wow...cover crops
are not idiot-proof!
Good advice from Steve Groff…
TREAT
YOUR
COVER
CROPS
LIKE YOUR
CASH
CROPS!
