Plant Cover Crops

Learning about the benefits of planting cover crops.

Water infiltration/percolation

Root Pit Reveals 40″ Cereal Rye Roots

Rye Pit

I am blessed to hear from farmers around the world about their cover cropping adventures.  One young man, Brian Scott, from Carroll County, Indiana has generously shared his information with me again this spring.  This post is Brian’s report from early May, 2013.  To see Brian’s photographs, click here.

We dug a few pits in our field today that has about 40 acres of cereal rye and another 40 of annual ryegrass. The cereal rye had a pretty good stand, but the ryegrass didn’t do so well over the winter.  Looks like we may not be the only farm with that problem this year?

Anyway I was pretty excited for our first year cover cropping that we found cereal rye roots down to 40″ today!  And we hit the water table below that since everything is still relatively wet from all the rain.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see more roots if we could have dug down deeper.  That was on pretty good soil that used to have manure applied every year until about 7 years ago when we got out of the hog business.

The ryegrass was on ground with much more clay near the surface, but I was glad to see we had roots down 2 feet where we did get a decent stand.

Both covers were sprayed today.  I think I would have liked to keep the cereal rye a bit longer, but with rain in the forecast we didn’t want it getting out of control if we got soaked again and couldn’t spray.  These were all seeded into standing corn on 9/19/2012.  In all we had about 200 acres of cover this year and have plans to seed at least 400 in the fall!

Thanks Brian!  And to everyone who have been sending info…watch for it to be on the blog soon.  Thanks to all who are sharing their stories.

Part 3- Do Cover Crops Keep the Soil Colder in the Spring?

Fact or Fiction? Cover Crops that Survive the Winter Keep the Soil Colder in the Spring than Fall-Tilled Soil – Part 3

As of today (April 17, 2013) there is 0% corn planted in Iowa and Indiana with 1% in Illinois and Ohio.  It is now wet and cold…not just cold.  As my brother Don takes soil temperature readings in no-till soils with cover crops, no-till with out cover crops, and fall tilled soils, we are trying to get an idea if no-till soils and or no-till soils with cover crops keep the soil colder than fall tilled soils. These trials are being conducted in central Indiana and should be a pretty good measurement for much of the Eastern Corn Belt.  I am in northern Wisconsin today where there are snow covered fields with 6-8″ more snow coming in the next 36 hours.  The readings from central Indiana don’t mean much in Minnesota and Wisconsin…but, I believe they are still instructive.

April 5-12, 2013 weather data

The temperatures at the local weather station showed that the actual average high for the week was 70.6° (historic average is 61°) and the actual nighttime average was 49.9° (historic average is 40.3°).  This was the first week in the past several weeks that have been warmer than average.  There was nearly 1 inch of rain during the week.

Soil temperatures increased dramatically during the week

Warm weather really helped increase the soil temperature, almost 10° in some of our trials.  It is interesting to see that the no-till soil without a cover crop was the coolest by 1°.  It was also the wettest soil last week and certainly appears to be the same on 4-12.  The warmest soil was the no-till with cover crop.  Not by much but it is warmer than the fall tilled soil by ~0.5°.

With heavy rains in the area this week it will be interesting to see what happens in each soil.  We hope to get an idea of what kind of earthworm activity we can find, but that might be difficult in the muddy sites.

Improved water infiltration may be showing springtime benefits

As you look at the photos notice the moisture content on the surface of the soil.  There are two observations or reminders that we should consider.  When we took compaction readings last summer (2012) we saw a significant benefit where we had cover crops compared to the no cover crop check.  These soil temperature tests are taken from those same plots.  Another observation is that I have found improved aeration and percolation where we have had cover crops (long-term no-till with cover crop) verses long-term no-till without a cover crops and a spring tilled soil.  I believe we are seeing that the cover crop is giving benefit again this spring in these areas.

What are you finding on your farm?

Readers would be interested in knowing what is going on in your area and on your farm.  Please comment below and share what you are finding.  Thanks,  Dave

The soil temperature in the long term no-till soils on 4-12-2013. Note how waterlogged the soil looks.
The soil temperature in the long-term no-till soils on 4-12-2013. Note how waterlogged the soil looks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The soil temperature in the long-term no-till soil with a cover crop. Note that the soil looks drier and it is also the warmest reading this week.
The soil temperature in the long-term no-till soil with a cover crop. Note that the soil looks drier and it is also the warmest reading this week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The soil temperature in the fall-tilled soil on 4-12-2013. The soil doe not look as wet as the no-tilled soils. Maybe the water went down the cracks!
The soil temperature in the fall-tilled soil on 4-12-2013. The soil does not look as wet as the no-tilled soils. Maybe because the water went down the cracks…

Cover Crops Enhance Water Infiltration/Percolation

In late September of 2011 I was walking in our family corn field in central Indiana–in the pouring rain. Following the wettest spring in the eastern corn belt in 100 years we had a summertime drought that saw less than 2 inches in July and August combined. In that same time period we had 32 days above 90 degrees.

We just had 3 inches of rain yet my soil was dry at 1/2 inch in this area that had been tilled wet in the spring.

On this September day we were having rain…3 inches worth of glorious rain! I threw on my rain coat and Tingley boots, grabbed my shovel and went into the corn field where our cover crop plots had been planted in the fall of 2010 and killed in May 2011. As I walked through the field I noticed that where the soil had been tilled (see previous blog post) I was seeing dry soil underneath my boot track! Now catch the scene here…no rain for much of 60+ straight days…now a 3″ rain and virtually none of the moisture getting into the soil! Literally I had less than 1/2″ of the soil depth that was moist! Dry footprints followed me all the way to the end of the field. I was not happy.

When I reached the area where the cover crop test plot was (that area was not tilled this spring) I dug into the check area that was no-tilled yet did not have a cover crop. In that area I dug into the soil and I found moisture 2 1/2-3 inches deep. This area was now no-tilled for 23 straight years. That made me feel better.

Water was standing (or running off) of the soil that was tilled wet in the spring of 2011. There was very little infiltration from a 3 inch rain

 

In this photo we see infiltration at 2 1/2 - 3 inches deep. This soil has been no-tilled for 23 straight years.

 

Then I dug in the area that had been no-tilled for 23 straight years and had a cover crop the previous winter. I was very pleased when I dug in the areas where we previously had annual ryegrass and cereal rye and found moisture had filtered (penetrated) in 7 (seven) inches deep!

Water infiltrated 7 inches deep where we had corn no-tilled into cover crop rye.

 

 

 

This section of the field had a cereal rye cover crop in 2010-11 and was no-tilled. Note the lack of water standing on top of the soil! Where did the water go? Into the soil!

 

Watch these videos on what I found when digging for earthworms in this sections with cover crops and no-till and where there was tillage without a cover crop. I believe we have an additional answer to why I had so much better infiltration where I had the cover crops..earthworms and roots!

This "rogue" radish provided information that we had a compaction zone at about 3 inches deep in our no-till field; thus reducing water infiltration where we had no cover crop.

Yet, I wondered, why did the moisture stop at 2 1/2-3″ in the no-till plots? I found the answer from a rogue radish. We had a few radishes that came up in the field that had been planted in the fall of 2010 (the fall of 2010 was so dry that many of the radishes did not come up until very late…or not until spring, or in a few cases until mid-summer).  As I previously wrote, Radish does have some hard seed.  I dug around one of the radishes and found a constriction in the radish at 2 1/2-3″ deep! Even after 23 years of no-till I still had a compaction problem! I believe that is one reason why cover crops help producers to transition from conventional tillage to no-till…cover crops penetrate through compaction layers.