Plant Cover Crops

Learning about the benefits of planting cover crops.

cover crop radishes

Harvesting Cover Crops for Emergency Fall Forage

Need Feed?

Many producers across the Midwest and beyond have very poor corn. Grain and Silage yields will be significantly lower than normal in 2012.

Harvesting cover crops for emergency fall forage may be able to play a major role in lessening the impact of the 2012 drought disaster for livestock producers.  As I traveled from Indiana to eastern Iowa and through Wisconsin I saw dry ponds, cracked soil, nearly dead alfalfa, completely brown pastures, and an exceptionally poor corn crop.

I have received phone call after phone call from dairy and beef producers asking what cover crops they can use to provide food for their animals this fall and winter.  Below I have listed a variety of choices that may work well for producers needing feed (if we get rain).  By the way, these choices are also excellent cover crops.

Fall Forage Fast- Mechanically Harvested

Sudangrass or Sorghum X Sudangrass

BMR Sudangrass is a great choice for fall feed - IF you can get your hands on some this year.

Both of these would be choice 1-A and 1-B. However the producers in Texas have been experiencing drought for the past few years and seed supply is exceptionally tight.  Choose BMR varieties if you can find them.

Spring Oats/Spring Triticale

This photo was taken south of East Lansing, MI in April 2010 and shows Oats in the center with Cereal Rye to the left and Spring Triticale to the right.

This is not a “sexy” choice but it is a very good option.  Oats sown in July and August will out-produce all of the winter cereal grains if a fall harvest is desired.  I have worked with Ed Ballard from the University of Illinois and Gary Wilson from Ohio State University Extension for a number of years on summer seeding Oats and found great success almost every year.

Stan Smith from OSU Extension is a real believer in summer seeding oats as seen in this excellent article.  Seed the Oats at 2 bu/acre and fertilize with 50+ Units of N or manure equivalent.  Spring Triticale will behave very similarly to Oats when summer seeded.

Oats and Crimson Clover

From this photo of crimson clover, you can see the potential forage value planted with oats (note the field in the background).

I really like this mix because it will be higher quality than plain oats.  Plant the oats in the grain box and the crimson clover in the small seed box.  Plant the oats at 2 bu/acre and the crimson clover at 5-8#/acre.

Nathan Anderson of Cherokee, Iowa (NW Iowa) planted this mixture in 2011 and had very good success. While taking one cutting for hay and grazing 2 times in the fall/winter, he showed a profit of nearly $140/acre in beef production (weight gain) and hay produced.

Make sure that the crimson clover is inoculated and do not plant the crimson clover more than 1/2″ deep.

Oats and Cereal Rye (or Winter Triticale)

Oats (left) and Rye (right) planted in August show the value of Oats as a fall forage in this photo taken in October 2011 in NE Indiana.


Harvest the oats in the fall and the cereal rye in the spring.  I’d look at 2 bu/acre oats and 1 -1/2 bu/acre on the cereal winter rye or triticale.  Consider adding 5-8# of Crimson clover to this mix as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oats (or Spring Triticale) and Peas (Forage or Austrian Winter Peas)

Austrian winter peas can produce A LOT of quality forage.

Plant a 50/50 mix of this combination for high quality fall forage.  Be sure to inoculate the peas.  Plant this mix 1 1/2 -2″ deep for best success.

 

 

Annual Ryegrass/Annual Ryegrass – Crimson Clover Mix or Italian Ryegrass

Annual ryegrass makes great fall and spring feed. It loves nitrogen, so apply plenty of manure. Add crimson clover to this, and WOW!

Annual Ryegrass or Italian Ryegrass will not produce the tonnage that the spring cereal grains will.  Ryegrass needs cooler temperatures, more moisture, and more fertility than the spring cereal grains need.  The main benefit is that you can get a very high quality forage…just not a lot of it unless you have the moisture, cooler temps, and higher fertility.  Maybe in the southern parts of the Midwest and further south this can be a good option.  Italian Ryegrass will not grow as aggressively in the fall as Annual Ryegrass will.

 

Spring or Winter Barley

Barley is a multipurpose cover crop that can be beneficial to hog, dairy, and beef producers.  It is a wonderful grain to use for feed and it is harvested for grain in June.  The haylage would be harvested in May with plenty of time to plant corn silage or Sudangrass.  Spring Barley planted in July/August will act like Oats and spring Triticale. Winter Barley will act more like cereal rye or winter Triticale.  Plant 2 bu/acre for grain production and 3 bu/acre for forage production.  Use less N than you would with Wheat or Ryegrass.

Spring or Winter Barley is also an option. Barley grain can be fed pretty similarly to corn and be harvested in June.

 

 

Cover Crop Turnips – A Good Choice Over Radishes?

Cover Crop Radishes or Turnips as a Cover Crop – or Both?

Cover crop radishes certainly receive a lot of press. I have researched them quite a bit over the past four years. On this blog alone I have over 20 posts about radishes. They are fun to take photos of, dig around in, research, and even play baseball with.

It is hard to pick up a publication that mentions cover crops and not read about radishes and their benefits.  Some industry and university cover crop research leaders like Steve Groff and Dr. Ray Wiel (University of Maryland) have researched radishes for over 10 years.You might say that cover crop radishes are the “Rock Star” of cover crop species these days.

What About Turnips?

The Oats are nearly 30" tall and the turnips are around 18" in this Oactober photo. The Cereal Rye was about 6" tall at this time. This mixture was planted in late August and the photo was taken Oct 22 - approximately 8 weeks after planting. My daughter Grace was the model..
The Oats are nearly 30″ tall and the turnips are around 18″ in this Oactober photo. The Cereal Rye was about 6″ tall at this time. This mixture was planted in late August and the photo was taken Oct 22 – approximately 8 weeks after planting. My daughter Grace was the model..

Why are turnips used as a cover crop so little compared to radishes? Are they the “ugly step-sister” of the Brassica family?

Let’s look at some of the benefits of turnips. Some newer varieties (Appin in particular) provide a bulb that is almost entirely in the soil and a deep root system (though a smaller bulb/tuber than the radish).

Benefits of Turnips

  • Turnips are very palatable for grazing cattle and sheep.
  • Most turnips survive the winter and hold onto nutrients into the spring (longer than radishes).
  • Turnips sequester nutrients in a similar fashion and amount as radishes (see data below).
  • Turnips are easy to kill in the spring.
  • Turnips do not have the odor problems that radishes have (therefore they can be planted more “safely” in areas closer to towns or neighbors).

“Problems” with Turnips

  • Not all turnips are created equal. The old purple top (or that type) turnip and even the tankard type turnips have very little of the bulb in the soil – thus less soil activity.
  • Most turnips survive the winter and then need to be killed in the spring. Yes this can also be a benefit.
  • The turnips “bolt” in the spring and want to produce seed. Kill them as early as possible.

    Turnips will overwinter in the spring. The turnips above flowered out in March 2012 in central Indiana. This is nearly 5 weeks before “normal”

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. If we mix turnips and radishes together, is that okay?  YES – for grazing or for just using as a cover crop.
  2. If we plant turnips instead of radishes is that okay?  Yes – just be aware of the differences and that the turnips will most likely survive the winter.
  3. What if we are just looking to graze and only care some about the cover crop?  Choose turnips.
These three brassica types were collected from a Loundonville, OH farm in the fall. Pasja Hybrid Brassica (L); GroundHog Cover Crop Radish (C); and Appin Turnip (R). Note the difference in tops versus tubers.

 

Nitrogen tested in Radishes/acre from Loudonville, OH dairy farm  averages 200 units of N (data collected November 2010)

Nitrogen tested in Appin Turnip/acre from Loudonville, OH dairy farm showed nearly 300 units of N (data collected November 2010)

The turnip tops had nearly 200 units of N/acre.  This was NOT scientific but it is instructive that turnips are an excellent scavenger of N.

Nutrient Scavenging Cover Crops – How much good are they doing? It depends.

Meet the Cover Crop Scavengers

Over the years I have worked with cover crops I have recommended that producers use “scavengers” like Annual Ryegrass, turnips, cereal rye,  winter barley, oats,  and cover crop radishes.  These cover crops do a very good job of capturing excess nitrogen and other nutrients and keeping them from reaching the ground water or running off with surface water.  When the nutrients are scavenged they are available for the subsequent crop.

Most of these scavengers are “luxury consumers” of nitrogen and a few of them are also “luxury consumers” of phosphorous.  These are ideal to use on land where manure is applied.  They also work very well when grown with a legume like crimson clover, hairy vetch, chickling vetch, and Austrian winter peas.

However, if  limited amounts of nitrogen are available how will these scavengers perform?

The answer: not as well.

My answer is subjective but based on observations that I will show you via some photos.

 

Observation 1

It is easy to see where the manure was knifed in in this field. But how much more N is being taken up where it is darker green? We'll be doing tissue tests soon to determine that.

The first observation is where hog manure was knifed in after wheat had been harvested. The photo shows that the cover crop (Annual ryegrass and Appin turnips) looks considerably darker where the manure had been applied.  We will soon be taking tissue samples to see what difference there is in the amount of N, P, and K are in the plants.  We also anticipate a future post showing a root pit view of the root growth difference (if any).
 
 
 
 

Observation 2

The "yellow" strips are pretty obvious in the cover crops in this seed corn field. It is not obvious where the corn rows were but I expect the lighter strips are above where the corn row had been.

The next observation comes from a seed corn field in north western Indiana near Demotte in Jasper county.  The main area of difference in N uptake is found where the male corn rows had been cut out this summer after the female rows had pollinated.  The difference is color was not as dramatic as it was in the previous situation but there was a clear difference in color and the amount of growth (considerably more developed) of the cover crop.
 
 
 
 

Observation 3

The left half of this photo had 35#/acre of N but had no legume to feed the radish. The right half of the photo shows the significant color and growth difference when radishes are grown with crimson clover (and the 35# N/acre).

The next field is near Edgerton in NW Ohio.  This field had three different applications being trialed.  One area had a crimson clover and GroundHog radish mixture, another area had an Austrian Winter Pea and GroundHog Radish mixture.  In between these mixtures was a strip of Tillage cover crop radishes with no legume but with around 35 units of nitrogen applied (the ~35 # of N was applied across the whole field).  If you attend many cover crop meetings you will hear speakers tell you to apply 35-50 units of N on radishes if they are sown without a legume or without manure applied.  After seeing this field I believe we are underestimating what kind of N we need to apply for “best” results as the radish only strip had considerably smaller radishes with much less tuber growth and more “yellow leaf”.    The area with the crimson clover/GroundHog Radish Mix was by far the darkest green and had the largest radish growth.  However, even though the peas did not look as impressive as the crimson clover, the radish growth was significant and much darker green than the radish area grown without any legume.

Observation 4

Not only does the crimson clover add nitrogen to the soil it also greatly enhances the soil structure. The soil on the left came from where there was only radishes planted. The soil on the right had crimson clover and radishes mixed together.

Another observation from this field was that where the radishes were grown with the crimson clover the soil had a much improved structure over the soil where only radishes were grown.  The massive amounts of crimson clover roots (with an exceptional amount of nodules on them by the way) gave the soil a much better texture.  See a very descriptive video here.  These soils are “Williams County Clays” or “NW Ohio clays” and are well known for their tightness and poor drainage.  As the farmer Ryan Sanders said after seeing the results of this experiment… “I will never plant radishes alone again.”

 

Cover Crop Field Day Set at Robison Farms

CISCO Seeds, Robison Farms, and Dougherty Fertilizer are sponsoring a Cover Crop Field Day and Root Dig at the Greenwood, Indiana farm. If you’ve not had an opportunity to see cover crops in a real life farm setting, this will be a great meeting for you . There will be multiple species available to look at and expert agronomists on hand to answer questions.

 

When:

Wednesday, November 30, 2011 from 2-4 P.M.

Location:

Corner of Five Point Road (300 East) and Main Street (Rocklane Road) east of Greenwood, IN

Contact:

If you have questions or need further information contact  Don Robison at donrobison@ciscoseeds.com or 317-357-7013

  • Rain or shine we will have a gathering (call if the weather is bad for “plan B”)

 

Cover Crop Field Day Highlights

Come see ten different mixes and/or species of cover crops in a large plot setting.
  • 1100’ lineal feet of cover crop plots
  • 10 different mixes or straight species shown
  • guaranteed weather! (not saying what kind)
  • working with NRCS, SWCD, and Dougherty Fertilizer
  • root digs (weather contingent)
  • Cover Crop Agronomists on hand for tours and Q/A sessions
  • See over 150 acres of various Cover Crops withing 1/2 mile of plots

 

Purpose of the cover crop field day

To see different species of cover crops in a real to life situation. This was a soybean field that had the cover crops applied over the top of the standing crop at roughly 50% leaf drop.

 

Species You Will See

 

  • Radishes
  • Turnips
  • Crimson Clover
  • Oats
  • Winter Rye
  • Annual Ryegrass
  • Austrian Winter Peas
  • Several Mixes including the above species

 

 

 

Directions:

From Indianapolis

  • Take I-65 South to Exit 99. Turn Left at end of ramp and travel 1.5 miles east to the plots

From Louisville

  • Take I-65 North to Exit 99. Turn Right at end of ramp and travel 1.5 miles east to the plots

From Columbus, OH

  • Take I-70 West to Indianapolis, follow 465 South to I-65 South to Exit 99. Turn Left at end of ramp and travel 1.5 miles east to the plots

From Terre Haute

  • Take I-70 East to Indianapolis, follow 465 South to I-65 South to Exit 99. Turn Left at end of ramp and travel 1.5 miles east to the plots

 

Just down the road we plan on digging another pit where Annual Ryegrass and Appin Turnips were applied after hog manure was knifed in after wheat.

Cover Crop Radish Research reveals interesting data and information

In the summer of 2010 I entered a number of “cover crop” radishes into research plots in Michigan and Minnesota.  Some of the products I entered were given to me from a supplier in Oregon. They had collected seed samples from Europe that had been touted as cover crop worthy.  They weren’t. Fortunately those varieties never hit the US market – that I am aware of.

I also entered two other radishes that actually performed very well.  What we found is that not all cover crop radishes are created equal.  While many of the top selling radishes grew the way you would hope, there were some that did not perform well at all.

Here’s what I mean: The “lesser performers” either bolted and went to seed production early, or they had very small tubers, or both.

Now in the summer of 2011 we have planted new plots in MI and MN along with some plots in my garden “agronomy plot” in Winona Lake, IN (NE IN).  I planted my plots WAY too thick as it was very dry and I was hoping to get emergence.  I watered two times after planting the plot and that helped quite a bit.  Over the last week we received nearly 5 inches of rain, so I have a very thick, robust radish stand.

What I am seeing after 6+ weeks of growth is interesting.  I purposely planted the “wild looking radish” (“VNS Daikon Radish” on the tag) that was sold out of North Dakota in the summer of 2010 so I could compare it to Oregon grown VNS Radish.  I included two named products, GroundHog and SoilBuster (a mixture of two varieties) in the plot as well.  On the GroundHog I entered seed from two different years 2009 and 2010 to check for consistency (GroundHog is actually a true single variety of radish).

VNS stand for "Variety Not Stated" and in some cases "Buyer Beware." The Oregon grown VNS Daikon Radish is a far superior radish for cover crops than the VNS Daikon Radish from North Dakota.

I have a few early observations on these 6+ week old radishes (planted August 19, photos taken Oct 6):

  • The GroundHog from both seed crop years look the same (green top on tuber, similar tuber type and size).
  • The Oregon grown “VNS Daikon Radish” is far better than the North Dakota grown “VNS Daikon Radish” (seed purchased from the Pulse Group).
  • The North Dakota grown “VNS Daikon Radish” looks like it did in 2010 – already bolting (it started bolting at 4 weeks) and very little root.
  • The Oregon Grown “VNS Daikon Radish”  has shorter top growth than both GroundHog and SoilBuster.
  • The Oregon Grown “VNS Daikon Radish”  has smaller tubers than both GroundHog and SoilBuster.
  • GroundHog had more top growth than SoilBuster.

My conclusion so far:

The two named radishes (that are actually varieties) seem to actually show more “value” (more top growth and larger tubers) than either of the VNS products.  What does that mean to producers?  That maybe the few extra dollars you pay per acre is actually money well spent.

Both named products showed larger tubers and more top growth than the Oregon Grown VNS Daikon Radishes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tag from the North Dakota VNS Radish. Notice the "ND" under origin in the upper right. Click on the image to make it larger.