Plant Cover Crops

Learning about the benefits of planting cover crops.

cover crop plots

We’re digging root pits!

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 in them (these were planted in 15″ rows).  The oats and radish roots were 34″ deep. Considering how exceptionally dry it was in the summer/fall of 2010, this is an impressive depth. 

The Crimson Clover looks great at Four L Farms in March 2011 at the Francesville, IN area. This was planted after corn silage in the fall of 2010.

On April 6 we will be in western Pulaski county Indiana at the Leman farms.  I posted about their farm last fall.  I hope we can dig 70+ inches deep (without filling the hole with water…or burying me in the process).  Last fall we aleady had roots 40 inches deep.  For info on the field day click Four L Farms Cover Crop Field Day April 2011.  Four L Farms plants their cover crops after corn silage in 15″ rows.  We’ll see crimson clover, annual ryegrass, and the vestiges of cover crop radishes. This is on a farm that applies dairy manure.

On April 7 we’re going to have another field day in Newton/Lake counties (Indiana).  We will be visiting Churchill Farms where they had nearly 900 acres aerial applied into standing corn last September (2010).  On this farm we will see annual ryegrass, winter cereal rye, and the vestiges of cover crop radishes.  For more information on this field day click Churchill Farms Cover Crop Field Day April 2011.

I hope you can all come!  These are great learning opportunities!  These events are co-sponsored by CISCO Seeds and local SWCD offices.

Cover Crops Under the Snow – What’s Happening?

A blanket of 12" of snow covered my cover crop plots on Feb 12, 2011. What would I find??

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 February 10, the real temperature was down to -11 degrees F and we’d had quite a bit of wind as well the past few weeks – so I didn’t know what to expect.  I know that snow is a great insulator but we’ve been cold the past 6 weeks.

I was VERY pleased to see green as I dug through the 12″ deep blanket.  I also took my spade out to the plots and decided I’d try to dig if the ground was not too frozen.  What a great idea!  I did not try to dig beyond 10″ but I found plenty of roots and even signs of mychorrizia growth. My plots had been planted late into exceptionally dry soil.

So was it “worth it” to get some cover crop growth?  I’d suggest the answer is “YES” as I have LIFE in my soils in February and not the typical “nothing” going on where there is no cover crop.  While the cover crops were not tall I have annual ryegrass roots at least 10″ deep.  Earlier in the fall I found radish roots 9″ deep before the early December snows came.  I found nodules from the crimson clover at 4″ deep (and living crimson clover plants).

I’m not sure why (but I have an idea)…but where I have cover crops I could get the spade in the ground.  Where I had no cover crop the ground was too hard to get the spade in!  Tell me what you think about that!

The first sign of life and death under the snow! The oats were dead, but the cereal rye was green.
The Annual Ryegrass and Crimson Clover were looking quite healthy under the snow.
Annual Ryegrass roots, Crimson Clover Roots, Mycorrizial activity...all working in Feb 2011 in northern Indiana to build my soil!
The Oats were dead but the Radish still had signs of life. That was quite a surprise!
Several Austrian Winter Peas survived under the snow as well. I believe this is because they were so small entering the winter.
Look at the roots! These made my Valentines Day all the more special! I'm not so sure that Mrs. Robison was having the same thoughts...

I’ve attached several photos with descriptions for your enjoyment!

Cover Crop plots in December-What can we tell now?

The first day of December brought the first day of snow in northern Indiana.  After the inch or so of snow and some Arctic air the cover crops are shutting down.  Over the past three weeks we received around 5″ of rain so the cover crops were actually growing fairly well heading into December.  Now the question is, what can we tell in December as the cover crops are shutting down.  My answer is “plenty”!

Now that the radish tops are wilting and the peas and annual ryegrass are falling closer to the soil surface you can see the radish tubers more easily.  From the radish tubers I believe we can now see how much nitrogen is being produced from the crimson clover and Austrian winter peas.  Now, this is NOT scientific…but it is pretty obvious that the radishes were considerably larger where there was more crimson clover.  I’ll be posting videos so you can make the observation for yourself.

For your information, the Mixes we are looking at on this post have similar species (different varieties) at different rates/species in the mix.  The first video has more annual ryegrass than the mix in the second video.  The second mix has more crimson clover and also one more pound per acre of the radishes,  So the big difference is in the amount of clover in the mixture.

Now, I’m not saying one mix is better than the other.  It really depends on what your goals are.  In mix #1 there are more deeper roots because of the annual ryegrass.  In mix #2 there appears to be quite a but more Nitrogen being produced (therefore larger radishes-even though there are more radishes to feed).  Mix #2 has approximately 10# of Bruiser annual ryegrass, 7# of AU Robin Crimson Clover, and 3# of GroundHog Radish.  Mix #1 has approximately 15# of Bounty Annual Ryegrass, 3# of crimson clover (I don’t know if it is VNS or a variety)  and 2# of Tillage Radish per acre.  Both mixes have outstanding radishes, outstanding annual ryegrass and I know mix #2 has an outstanding crimson clover.  So it’s not like one good mix and one bad mix…both are good.

So, which mix do you want?  Do you want more nitrogen?   Or do you choose less nitrogen but 5# more annual ryegrass for additional deep roots?  Let me know what you are looking for!