• 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

Nov 03 2020

An Excellent Cover Crop Mix Ahead of Corn

The mix pictured above is Nutribuilder Mix. It’s a three way mix of annual ryegrass, clover, and radishes.

This field was planted on August 18 at 25 pounds per acre. The included pictures were taken on October 30. The plan is to plant this field into corn next year.

The growth in this field shows the importance of a timely planting date. This is especially important for the radishes, since they will winterkill – and the farmer will want maximum benefit from them before they die.

Benefits

Each component in this mix will enhance the performance of the soil and improve the productivity of the following year’s crop. And of course, the long-term benefits associated with the ongoing use of cover crops are hard to quantify.

But what are some specific things to expect from each of these components?

Annual ryegrass

Annual ryegrass provides one of the best cost-to-benefit ratios of any cover crop, maybe the best. It’s inexpensive, versatile in application (aerial, broadcast, drill), and provides tremendous value to the soil. Annual ryegrass breaks up compaction, allowing better water infiltration. The depth of the roots provide access to parts of the soil previously unavailable to the cash crop. The fibrous root system near the soil surface helps prevent erosion. Annual ryegrass is an excellent scavenger of leftover nutrients, holding them for use later in the growing season.

Crimson clover

Crimson clover is an excellent choice for building nutrition into the soil. If you’re looking to build nitrogen for your cash crop, crimson clover provides that service. Since it will survive the winter, it will provide biomass as well. The crimson clover will also help the annual ryegrass and radishes to grow bigger and provide more benefit to the soil as well, as demonstrated by this video.

Radish

Cover crop radishes have been the super stars of the cover crop world. Their benefits have been noted over the years. They:

  • scavenge nutrients from the soil (especially nitrogen).
  • penetrate the soil, therefore reducing compaction.
  • enhance soil percolation and aeration.
  • provide an excellent environment for earthworms.
  • provide deer and cattle an excellent wintertime feed.
  • die in the winter.

Conclusion

Taking all of this information into consideration, this type of mix is an excellent choice to plant in the fall before planting corn the following spring. Keep in mind that only the radish will winterkill, so you will need a plan to terminate both the annual ryegrass and the crimson clover.

Written by Mark · Categorized: Cover Crop Benefits · Tagged: Annual Ryegrass, cover crops, crimson cloer, Radish

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