Many cover crops were planted in September and even into early October in much of the Midwest in 2011. Some of those cover crops are not very advanced in their growth by mid-November. Does this mean that they are useless or worthless? As I often say in meetings or at field days…”always take a shovel […]
Short Cover Crops Put Down Deep Roots Read More »
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
Cover crops for gardens – and my wife, the cover cropping queen! Read More »
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
Earthworm Population Corn Field Experiment Read More »
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
66″ No-Till Corn Roots Following Cover Crops Read More »
I am so pleased to present these photos of how well my friend Dave’s soybeans planted into tall cereal rye looks. Dave is from central Indiana between Indy and Lafayette. See the previous photo diary here. I know Dave gained lots of encouragement to try this from Howard and Mike Weller from the Continental, Ohio
Photo Diary – Soybeans planted into a Cereal Rye cover crop- part 2 Read More »
I am very blessed to know a number of producers that are passionate about cover crops and crop production profitability. One such producer is a fellow named Dave from NC Indiana. (Dave is very humble and does not want notoriety so I will not use his last name or exact town.) However, Dave has agreed
Photo Diary – Soybeans planted into a Cereal Rye cover crop Read More »
The first day of December brought the first day of snow in northern Indiana. After the inch or so of snow and some Arctic air the cover crops are shutting down. Over the past three weeks we received around 5″ of rain so the cover crops were actually growing fairly well heading into December. Now
Cover Crop plots in December-What can we tell now? Read More »
The video below shows the value of Crimson Clover in a cover crop setting. Crimson clover has been tested and shown to produce as much as 140#/N after it has been planted after wheat. The plots in this video were planted around July 29, 2010 by the Jasper and Newton County SWCD folks (Thanks Dan
Big Radish fed by Crimson Clover Read More »