During the first week of April I was in several root pits in northwest Indiana and boy did we find plenty of interesting factoids! I was assisted by Eileen Kladivko from Purdue University on one day and Barry Fisher, Indiana NRCS State Agronomist, on another day. What We Found in the Cover Crop Root Pits […]

Cover crops for gardens – and my wife, the cover cropping queen!
My wife Sally must love me…or at least she is observant to see how cover crops are improving the soil in our family gardens. Over the nearly 19 years we have lived in our home we have had a garden where we often have raised vegetables for the Hispanic families that we minister to. A […]
Earthworm Population Corn Field Experiment
Robison Farms in the Greenwood, Indiana area have been no-till farming since the late 1960’s. The field that these videos were taken from has been no-tilled for approximately 20 consecutive years. With the wet spring of 2011 the gentleman that now does the field work for dad decided to chisel plow and disk most of […]

66″ No-Till Corn Roots Following Cover Crops
I had a “see it to believe it” moment in late August near Stryker, Ohio (Williams County – NW Ohio). A very long and deep root pit had been dug as Frank Gibbs (Ohio NRCS Resource Soil Scientist) was looking for the tile in a continuous no-till corn field. I’m thankful that the tile was […]
Crimson Clover; a jewel among the cover crop legumes
Crimson clover is a real jewel among the cover crop species. Crimson clover is an excellent producer of nitrogen and there are some newer varieties on the market that are very winterhardy even into Michigan. Dr. Eileen Kladivko measured how much nitrogen was produced by crimson clover in a test plot in western Indiana. What […]
Earthworms…valuable resource on farm ground
Earthworms are exceptionally valuable builders of healthy, fertile topsoil. Jill Clapperton stated that a good sign of a healthy topsoil was that a “shovel-full of soil” should have 8 earthworms in it. In my field diggings I have found anywhere from ZERO to 10 erathworms per shovel-full. I found 10 in crimson clover, 8 in […]
Categories
- Adding Nitrogen to cover crops (1)
- Cover Crop Benefits (71)
- Breaking Up Compaction (18)
- Cover Crop Roots (12)
- Erosion Control (1)
- Higher Yields (21)
- Lower Inputs (4)
- Manure management (6)
- Soil Improvement (15)
- Water infiltration/percolation (3)
- Weed Suppression (4)
- Breaking Up Compaction (18)
- Cover Crop Challenges (68)
- Aerial Application (9)
- Aerial Application into Soybeans (2)
- Chemical Use and Cover Crops (7)
- Cover Crops in Iowa (3)
- Cover Crops in Wisconsin (6)
- Crop insurance (4)
- Delayed Spring Planting (8)
- Dormant Seed (2)
- Establishing in dry conditions (2)
- High-boy application (1)
- Killing Annual Ryegrass in the Spring (7)
- Misinformation and Myths (5)
- Prevented planting (11)
- Radish Smell (1)
- Risk Management (5)
- Seed Selection: What to Plant After… (11)
- Seeding Rates (2)
- Stand Establishment Following Cover Crops (5)
- Timing of Planting (3)
- Wild Radishes (1)
- Winterhardiness (3)
- Cover Crop Champions (1)
- Cover Crop Wearables (1)
- Cover Crops – Return on Investment (2)
- Cover Crops & No-Till (1)
- Cover Crops effect on spring Soil temperatures (4)
- Cover Crops in Minnesota (4)
- Cover Crops in the Northland (8)
- Education (70)
- Aerial Application Certification (2)
- Cover Crop Meetings (9)
- Cover Crop Plots (12)
- Cover Crop Research (12)
- Decision Making Tool (2)
- Field Days (11)
- Improved Varieties (6)
- Midwest Cover Crops Council (3)
- Midwest Cover Crops Field Guide (1)
- Online Training Seminars (4)
- Radish Plot (7)
- Surveys (3)
- Webinars (3)
- YouTube Videos (13)
- Grazing Cover Crops (10)
- Cover Crops for Forage (3)
- Fall Grazing (3)
- Lower Yields possible (1)
- Terminating Cover Crops (1)
- Types of Cover Crops (60)
- Annual Ryegrass (10)
- Austrian Winter Peas (9)
- Cowpeas (2)
- Crimson Clover (10)
- Hairy Vetch (2)
- Kura Clover (1)
- Mustard (1)
- Oats (4)
- Radishes (24)
- Red Clover (2)
- Sorghum Sudangrass (1)
- Sudangrass (1)
- Turnips (4)
- Winter Barley (1)
- Winter Cereal Rye (12)
Newsletter
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Cover Crop Turnips – A Good Choice Over Radishes? April 14, 2012
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Planting cover crop radishes with wheat? How do you plant them? October 5, 2011
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Austrian Winter Peas June 12, 2010
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Cover Crops for Fall and Winter Grazing July 26, 2012
- Winter Cereal Rye July 15, 2010
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New articles out on Cover Crops in the Upper Midwest March 27, 2014
- Broadcast Recording Available from National Cover Crops Conference February 28, 2014
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Cover Crops- It is Amazing how much interest there is these days! February 23, 2014
- Cover Crop Meetings Winter 2014 December 18, 2013
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More Fall Cover Crop Field Days Coming October 17, 2013
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Dave: Scott, Where are you from? And, have you taken a ...
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Dave: Steve, I do not have answers to your questions......
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Dave: JD, Interseeding at V5/V6 is proving to be "risk...
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Dave: Edith, Mississippi State University did some work ...
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Dave: Mike, Good question! Michigan State University r...
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