The Crimson clover had dense roots and we found a number of them at over 40″ deep. At cover crop field days over the past few weeks many interesting aspects of cover crops were revealed. One reminder about cover crops; it is NOT what is above ground that is the best indicator of success. Please […]
Cover Crops underground…I was not disappointed, I was a bit surprised! Read More »
We are digging root pits to see what happened last fall and over the winter with cover crops. On March 30 we were at Mike Werling’s farm south of Ft. Wayne, IN. We held two cover crop field days at Mike’s over the summer. We looked at the fields that had oats, radishes and peas
We’re digging root pits! Read More »
Across much of the Corn Belt there has been pretty good snow cover since the beginning of 2011. On February 12, 2011 it was not snowing in my hometown of Winona Lake, IN so I decided to take out the snow shovel and dig in my cover crop plots to see what was going on. On
Cover Crops Under the Snow – What’s Happening? Read More »
Folks, I feel like a proud papa! Well sort of – maybe a proud brother. Several people from Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan have worked countless hours to provide a Cover Crop Decision Making Tool. I was privileged to be a part of the Indiana and Ohio teams. This tool will guide producers in making wise decisions on
Cover Crop Decision Making Tool – Now Online! Read More »
Watch your mailbox for an invitation from your local SWCD, NRCS, or extension office for dates for cover crop meetings! Over the next 6 weeks I am speaking at a number of meetings on cover crops. One of the highlights includes the CTC meetings in Ada, OH on February 24-25. The “cover crop emphasis day”
Cover Crop Meetings Galore! Read More »
As I take phone calls and conduct meetings I ask producers if they want to have the cover crop they are choosing to overwinter or die during the winter. I’d guess that the answer as split 50/50. The biggest reason for wanting the cover crop to die is that producers don’t want to have “to
What if a cover crop dies over the winter…was it still valuable? Read More »
In this post we look at two more videos of mixes on December 2, 2010. This first mix in this session is of Austrian Winter Peas and GroundHog Radishes. The seeding rate is 30# Peas and 5# of Radish per acre. The main thing we observe in this plot is the larger radishes than we
Cover Crop plots in December-What can we tell now? part 2 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 »