Radishes, Crimson Clover, and Bears
Walking in cover crop fields in northern Indiana is easy compared to doing it northern Wisconsin.
In northern Indiana my main issue is tripping over large radish tubers sticking out of the ground.
In northern Wisconsin my main issue was that plus watching out for bears. I’m not talking about the Chicago Bears…but real live black bears! Although I did not see any while conducting cover crop field days near Coleman, WI on October 18, 2012, hearing the stories about the bears raising havoc while AgVentures Co-op employees were harvesting corn plots made me quite nervous.
The cover crop plot was fabulous. There were 5 different mixes to observe plus straight radishes planted at 8#/acre. The cooperator plans on taking yield tests over each different cover crop mix in his 2013 corn crop. If he is able to do that I’ll keep you informed of the results.
- The radishes were from 1″ to 3″ in diameter and quite deeply rooted. There was manure applied after wheat harvest so the radishes were “well fed”.