Learning about the benefits of planting cover crops.
Join me with Wisconsin NRCS at the Badger Plot Cover Crop Research Site on October 2, 2013 @ Jeff and Jerry Kreuziger Farms near Clyman, WI. Sessions will run from 9:30-Noon or 1:00-3:30 CST. This looks to be a great day to learn more about cover crops and soil health in southern Wisconsin/northern Illinois regions.
For more information see Badger Plot Research-Producer Day.
Sarah Carlson, Midwest Cover Crop Research Coordinator with Practical Farmers of Iowa and Ryan Stockwell, Agriculture Program
Manager with the National Wildlife Federation have written an agenda that will help researching cover crops be more scientific over the next six to eight years. The research agenda is published in the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development
ISSN: 2152-0801 online www.agdevjournal.com
Here is the abstract of this aggressive agenda:
Copyright © 2013 by New Leaf Associates, Inc.
Abstract
Given certain ecologic and agronomic characteristics of conventional corn and soybean monocultures, cropping systems reliant solely on these two commodities inevitably lose soil and nutrients. Leaky cropping systems not only hamper society with negative externalities, but also erode the very natural resources needed to produce food and sustain civilization. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), state agriculture department staff, farmer organizations, agribusiness leaders, and conservation and environmental organizations now see cover crops as a solution to reduce the negative externalities of conventional row-crop agriculture. Farmers are asking for increased agronomic and economic research to help them understand the benefits of and implement the use of cover crops. Researchers for the most part are not keeping up with farmers’ innovations on cover crops nor on providing the information sought by farmers. This article outlines the questions farmers are asking about cover crops and provides suggestions to agronomists, soil scientists, and researchers on research topics to best answer those questions. Additionally, social scientists must initiate a new round of research to understand the underlying concerns farmers have with cover crops and help to define the information (both content and source) that best informs and influences farmers. This article outlines specific issues and questions social scientists can research to contribute to the advancement of more sustainable farming practices and, in particular, cover crops.
Keywords
adoption, climate change, cover crops, diversity, externalities, innovation, natural resources, nutrient loss, resilience
You can find the complete paper here.
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).
I have a few early observations on these 6+ week old radishes (planted August 19, photos taken Oct 6):
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.
I often hear folks saying that farmers should be careful planting into cover crops. There is fear that:
Well, here we are after one of the wettest Springs in the Eastern Corn Belt history and we have had challenges getting the crop in. But getting a good stand planting into cover crops has NOT seemed to be a problem.
In the Fall of 2010 I conducted a test at Robison Farms near Greenwood, Indiana. My brother Don and I simulated aerial application of 9 different cover crop entries (mixes and straight species). While we had very little rain in the Fall until late October, we had excellent winter and spring growth on most of the non-irrigated plots. We had the same plot entries in a different part of the field that received 3″ of irrigation (weekly applications of 0.5″ rain for 6 weeks) and all of the cover crops did very well in those plots.
Stand establishment results were very positive towards no-till planting into cover crops as we look at the Robison Farms results. My take home is that in an exceptionally wet year we did not lose any stand because of the cover crops. In most areas we actually held steady or improved (slightly) compared to the no-till without cover crops. Slugs? None. Cannot get them killed? I’d say better than 99% kill rate…and less broadleaf weeds in the cover crop plots.
This is one location in one year…one very wet, very challenging year. Many farmers have told me how their stands were at least as good in their cover crop fields compared to having no cover crops…and some have some great stories about how they actually planted earlier in their cover crop fields than they could in their non-cover crop fields.
What was your experience this year? I’d love to hear from you.
Here is a video that shows what my brother Don and I observed.