Plant Cover Crops

Learning about the benefits of planting cover crops.

Blog

Cover Crop and Forage Meeting Aug 14, 2013

On August 14, 2013 the University of Wisconsin is holding an Agronomy Field Day at the Marshfield Ag Research Station.   The line-up of speakers looks outstanding and CEU credits are available for Certified Crop Advisers.

I will be speaking out at the cover crop plots looking at how we can use cover crops as forages and benefit the soil at the same time.

KY Forages April 2011 041
An Annual Ryegrass cover crop can make excellent dairy quality baleage/silage in the fall if planting after wheat. It also is a fabulous scavenger of N and P with deep roots.

For past blog posts on using cover crops for forages looks here and here.

Cover Crop Field Day July 22-23, 2013

This looks like a Fantastic Field Day in Emporia, Kansas.  Gail Fuller sent me the info and I believe this will be well worth the time and investment to attend if at all possible.  There is a great line-up of speakers!

Here is the note from Gail about the event held last year…

Last year I had organic producers, long and short term No-tillers, conventional tillers, ranchers and agency people from 10 states and 2 country’s, so it will be a very diverse crowd. It will center around “farming in natures image” or eco-farming with sessions focused on symbiotic relationships within the system. Plant to plant, microbe to plant, insect to plant, etc. Livestock will be included as they are an important part of a system. It will all be tied to healthier food, and healthier living.  
 
Thanks Again!
Gail  

Results of Farmer Cover Crop Survey Conducted by SARE and CTIC

Folks,
If you want to see how cover crops provide a very good ROI across a wide geographic region then this report is for you!  Thanks to Rob Meyers from SARE and the folks at CTIC for conducting and publishing this survey.  It helps me to see that the results on our home farm (and many of your farms too) were duplicated over a broad area.

Cover crops REALLY help with yield :)
Cover crops REALLY help with increasing yield 🙂            (BTW, we are NOT really standing up.)
Here is Rob’s e-mail.  Check out the link to see the whole report.
We are releasing today the results of a farmer survey on cover crops that was conducted by SARE and the Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC) this past winter.  A majority of the surveys were completed by farmers attending Midwest conferences this past winter but we also had some respondents to the online version of the survey from across the U.S.  The survey analysis and report development was completed by CTIC under a contract from North Central Region SARE.  Questions on the survey were developed with the input of MCCC steering committee members.  The report is available online at:  http://www.northcentralsare.org/CoverCropsSurvey
Key findings included the following:
  • During the fall of 2012, corn planted after cover crops had a 9.6% increase in yield compared to side-by-side fields with no cover crops.  Likewise, soybean yields were improved 11.6% following cover crops.
  • In the hardest hit drought areas of the Corn Belt, yield differences were even larger, with an 11.0% yield increase for corn and a 14.3% increase for soybeans.
  • Surveyed farmers are rapidly increasing acreage of cover crops used, with an average of 303 acres of cover crops per farm planted in 2012 and farmers intending to plant an average of 421 acres of cover crops in 2013.  Total acreage of cover crops among farmers surveyed increased 350% from 2008 to 2012.
  • Farmers identified improved soil health as a key overall benefit from cover crops.  Reduction in soil compaction, improved nutrient management, and reduced soil erosion were other key benefits cited for cover crops.  As one of the surveyed farmers commented, “Cover crops are just part of a systems approach that builds a healthy soil, higher yields, and cleaner water.”
  • Farmers are willing to pay an average (median) amount of $25 per acre for cover crop seed and an additional $15 per acre for establishment costs (either for their own cost of planting or to hire a contractor to do the seeding of the cover crop).
Please help us distribute this information to your colleagues and farmers in your region.
Rob Myers, Ph.D.
Regional Director – Extension Programs
North Central Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE)
University of Missouri
238 Ag Engineering Bldg.
Columbia, MO 65211-5200
Phone 573-882-1547
Email myersrob@missouri.edu
Web http://www.northcentralsare.org/

Prevented Planting Seeding Options

I recorded this video a few weeks ago for the seed company I work for. After receiving numerous calls and e-mails asking for help on what to plant, I decided to put this presentation together.  Many of the options I mentioned as being viable to plant in mid-June can still be planted in July.

Please check with your seed supplier for availability of the different species.  Until new crop is harvested there are several species that are in short supply.

Prevented Planting Seeding Options video.

It may take a few minutes to download the video.

 

 

Cover Crops and Prevented Plant Information Guidance

In late June I was on a farm in west central Wisconsin with two farmers that had over 3,000 of their nearly 6,000 acres that were too wet to plant in 2013.  This is an example of what I have seen and heard and read on personal farm calls, numerous phone calls, and multiple e-mails that farmers have asked for advice on “what to do.”

On my way home from that on-farm visit I called Ryan Stockwell from the National Wildlife Federation. NWF has been a great friend to agriculture and cover cropping.  I wanted to see what Ryan was hearing about potential changes in RMA Crop Insurance rulings for the upper Midwest – so farmers might be able to harvest their cover crops (or alternative forages) from their prevented planting acres before November 1, 2013.  What I heard from Ryan was not good news for the livestock producer that is desperately short of feed because of the drought of 2012 and severe alfalfa winterkill during the winter of 2012-13.

As I lamented to Ryan how I thought that there should be some “flexibility” in the crop insurance regulations, it hit me that farmers could possibly make more money harvesting forages and NOT taking their crop insurance payment.  That is when we got Sarah Carlson (Practical Farmers of Iowa) and Tom Kaspar  (USDA-ARS National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment in Ames, Iowa) involved.

If you are considering what to do with prevented planting acres and you need forage, or you are considering whether to put a cover crop on your prevented planting acres, then this article is for you.  Please read Cover crops and prevented plant information guidance.

My marking numbers on a notebook I began while driving down I-90/94 tuned into a full fledged article that was well beyond my expectations. Thanks to Ryan, Sarah, and Tom for making this a scientific article that more than solidified my idea and well exceeded my abilities.  You guys are the best!