Cover Crops for Grazing Drought ’12 is causing many cattle producers to consider cover crops for fall and winter grazing. Hay is very expensive and in short supply, and corn silage will be short in many areas. A lack of feed is leaving a number of dairy and beef producers looking to liquidate their herds. […]
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Need Feed? Harvesting cover crops for emergency fall forage may be able to play a major role in lessening the impact of the 2012 drought disaster for livestock producers. As I traveled from Indiana to eastern Iowa and through Wisconsin I saw dry ponds, cracked soil, nearly dead alfalfa, completely brown pastures, and an exceptionally
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CTIC Cover Crop Survey – Get it done right away! Chad Watts, CTIC Project Manager, asked me to help CTIC get a survey out for farmers using cover crops. Chad writes: The intent of the survey is to go out to only those folks who are using or have used cover crops, because the information
Cover Crop T-Shirts Cover Crops are gaining popularity and starting to become mainstream! How do I know? Now you can purchase Cover Crop T-Shirts! Practical Farmers of Iowa have designed a “Don’t Farm Naked” T-Shirt that you would be proud to wear (well, maybe not to church…). The shirts can be ordered here. For $15/shirt
The Midwest Cover Crop Council (MCCC) has added different states and cropping systems to their useful cover crop selection tool. This tool is a very helpful item that assists producers in choosing what cover crops can be used in their counties with their cropping systems and their choice of cover crop characteristics. Most recently Michigan
More Cover Crop Selection Tools Available Read More »
Terminating cover crops is part of the “stepped-up management” that using cover crops requires. Over the past month I shot videos about killing annual ryegrass, killing crimson clover, and about the difference of killing cereal rye and annual ryegrass. In each of the videos I examined the importance of killing the cover crop…and killing it
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Over the past year I have had the honor and privilege of working with a group of university, NRCS, and ARS professionals on putting together the Midwest Cover Crop Field Guide. This guide (pocket sized) is pretty specific to the Midwestern part of the USA. However, many of the species can be used in other parts
“Midwest Cover Crops Field Guide” Now Available Read More »
Over the winter of 2011-12 I did nearly 55 cover crop meetings across the Midwest. And one of the “hottest” topics was how to kill annual ryegrass in the spring. This topic is almost like the Tim Tebow of the cover crop world. Some have no problems managing it and some hate it (cannot get
Killing Cover Crop Annual Ryegrass – How Are We Doing? Read More »