• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Plant Cover Crops

Learning about the benefits of planting cover crops.

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Newsletter

Jun 26 2010

Cowpeas-some love, some…

Cowpeas are an enigma for Midwestern producers.  Sometimes referenced as a “summer soybean,” cowpeas need to have hot weather and adequate moisture to have the best success.  Cowpeas do exhibit  good drought tolerance. If there is a dry summer, cowpeas should be planted by 4th week of July.  Inoculating cowpeas is vital for success.  Cowpeas need to be planted ¾ -1” deep and have excellent weed control to establish well.  When a good stand is established and growing, cowpeas can produce 70-150# nitrogen/acre.   The past few years cowpeas have been expensive to use.

Advantages of Cowpeas

  • Produces N
  • Excellent for forage
  • Winterkills
  • Excellent summer choice
  • Improved drought tolerance
  • Works well mixed with oilseed radish

Disadvantages of Cowpeas

  • Expensive in recent years
  • Needs hot weather to excel
  • Winterkills

Plant Cowpeas at 60-120#/acre.

Written by Dave Robison · Categorized: Cowpeas · Tagged: cover crops, cowpeas

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kelly Scott says

    November 23, 2011 at 10:48 am

    Hello, love your site! I planted cowpeas with sorghum sudan on 4/30/11 as a green manure crop. The cowpeas grew really well, even with sorghum sudan competition, in acidic soil, and a mild and wet summer. Was really happy with the stand. Located in southern Maryland.

  2. Charles Leonard says

    September 16, 2012 at 8:54 pm

    Use them every year. They are nearly perfect in Piedmont North Carolina for a quick and reliable summer cover. Planted some this year in late May along with Japanese Millet. It was very wet and the weeds caught up with the peas. Planted more in mid-July after cutting an early summer crop of medicinal herbs. The interim planting really took hold and produced a strong stand that will last me through until fall.

  3. scott says

    December 11, 2014 at 7:53 pm

    I am a total newbie farmer, my father just bought farmland. Brems sandy loam. We had guys direct drill alfalfa last year but failed. I am trying to convince my dad to start with cowpeas because of the drought tolerance. Do you think this will be a good crop for starting soil that hasn’t been farmed in at least ten years? They limed last year.

  4. Dave says

    April 1, 2015 at 6:01 pm

    Scott,
    Where are you from? And, have you taken a soil sample? If not, start there. alfalfa may have failed for many reasons but quite possibly because the fertility and pH are so low. After determining your soil fertility levels and pH you can get realistic answers.

    Dave

Trackbacks

  1. bokashicomposting.com - Short Cover Crops Put Down Deep Roots says:
    November 30, 2011 at 10:36 am

    […] like annual ryegrass, cover crop radishes, oats, cereal rye, Austrian winter peas, rape, kale, cowpwea, Hairy Vetch, Phacelia, turnips, and crimson clover.  Some of the cover crops were in fields that […]

Primary Sidebar

Categories

  • Adding Nitrogen to cover crops (1)
  • Cover Crop Application Method (1)
  • Cover Crop Benefits (75)
    • Breaking Up Compaction (18)
      • Cover Crop Roots (12)
    • Erosion Control (1)
    • Higher Yields (22)
      • Nitrogen from Cover Crops (12)
      • Planting Radish with Wheat (1)
    • Lower Inputs (4)
    • Manure management (6)
      • Slurry Seeding Cover Crops (1)
    • Soil Improvement (15)
      • Cover Crops and Earthworms (6)
      • Inoculating Cover Crop Legumes (1)
    • Water infiltration/percolation (3)
    • Weed Suppression (5)
  • Cover Crop Challenges (69)
    • Aerial Application (9)
    • Aerial Application into Soybeans (2)
    • Chemical Use and Cover Crops (7)
    • Cover Crops in Iowa (3)
    • Cover Crops in Wisconsin (6)
    • Crop insurance (4)
    • Delayed Spring Planting (8)
      • Planting into Tall Austrian Winter Peas (2)
    • Dormant Seed (2)
    • Establishing in dry conditions (2)
    • High-boy application (1)
    • Killing Annual Ryegrass in the Spring (7)
    • Misinformation and Myths (5)
    • Prevented planting (11)
    • Radish Smell (1)
    • Risk Management (5)
    • Seed Selection: What to Plant After… (11)
      • Corn (3)
      • Soybeans (2)
      • Wheat (7)
    • Seeding Rates (3)
    • Stand Establishment Following Cover Crops (5)
    • Timing of Planting (3)
    • Wild Radishes (1)
    • Winterhardiness (3)
  • Cover Crop Champions (1)
  • Cover Crop Wearables (1)
  • Cover Crops – Return on Investment (2)
  • Cover Crops & No-Till (1)
  • Cover Crops effect on spring Soil temperatures (4)
  • Cover Crops in Minnesota (4)
  • Cover Crops in the Northland (8)
  • Education (70)
    • Aerial Application Certification (2)
    • Cover Crop Meetings (9)
    • Cover Crop Plots (12)
    • Cover Crop Research (12)
    • Decision Making Tool (2)
    • Field Days (11)
    • Improved Varieties (6)
    • Midwest Cover Crops Council (3)
    • Midwest Cover Crops Field Guide (1)
    • Online Training Seminars (4)
    • Radish Plot (7)
    • Surveys (3)
    • Webinars (3)
    • YouTube Videos (13)
  • Frost Seeding (1)
  • Grazing Cover Crops (10)
    • Cover Crops for Forage (3)
    • Fall Grazing (3)
  • Lower Yields possible (1)
  • Seeding Mult-Species Cover Crop Mix (1)
  • Terminating Cover Crops (1)
  • Types of Cover Crops (61)
    • Annual Ryegrass (10)
    • Austrian Winter Peas (9)
    • Cowpeas (2)
    • Crimson Clover (10)
    • Hairy Vetch (2)
    • Kura Clover (1)
    • Mustard (1)
    • Oats (4)
    • Radishes (24)
    • Red Clover (3)
    • Sorghum Sudangrass (1)
    • Sudangrass (1)
    • Turnips (4)
    • Winter Barley (1)
    • Winter Cereal Rye (12)

Newsletter

Cover Crop Resources

  • CISCO Seeds Cover Crops
  • Conservation Cropping Systems Initiative
  • Cover Crop Decision Tool
  • Midwest Cover Crops Council
  • Sustainable Crop Rotations with Cover Crops

Other Farm Resources

  • Practical Farmers of Iowa

Connect Online

Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on TwitterFollow Us on YouTubeFollow Us on RSS

Footer

Popular Videos

Pages

  • Blog
  • Why Cover Crops?
  • About
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Advertise Here
  • Newsletter

Copyright © 2023 · Altitude Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in