Need Feed? 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 […]
Harvesting Cover Crops for Emergency Fall Forage Read More »
The Midwest Cover Crop Council (MCCC) has added different states and cropping systems to their useful cover crop selection tool. This tool is a very helpful item that assists producers in choosing what cover crops can be used in their counties with their cropping systems and their choice of cover crop characteristics. Most recently Michigan
More Cover Crop Selection Tools Available Read More »
Terminating cover crops is part of the “stepped-up management” that using cover crops requires. Over the past month I shot videos about killing annual ryegrass, killing crimson clover, and about the difference of killing cereal rye and annual ryegrass. In each of the videos I examined the importance of killing the cover crop…and killing it
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Over the past year I have had the honor and privilege of working with a group of university, NRCS, and ARS professionals on putting together the Midwest Cover Crop Field Guide. This guide (pocket sized) is pretty specific to the Midwestern part of the USA. However, many of the species can be used in other parts
“Midwest Cover Crops Field Guide” Now Available Read More »
During the first week of April I was in several root pits in northwest Indiana and boy did we find plenty of interesting factoids! I was assisted by Eileen Kladivko from Purdue University on one day and Barry Fisher, Indiana NRCS State Agronomist, on another day. What We Found in the Cover Crop Root Pits
Cover Crop Root Pits Reveal Plenty Read More »
In late September of 2011 I was walking in our family corn field in central Indiana–in the pouring rain. Following the wettest spring in the eastern corn belt in 100 years we had a summertime drought that saw less than 2 inches in July and August combined. In that same time period we had 32
Cover Crops Enhance Water Infiltration/Percolation Read More »
There are two tremendous meetings coming up in the next two weeks featuring cover crop information. One is the Midwest Cover Crops Council annual meeting held at the Beck Agricultural Center near West Lafayette, IN. Producers should make a great effort to attend on Wednesday and Thursday if at all possible. The Thursday meeting is
Outstanding Cover Crop Meetings Coming Up Read More »
Over the past three years I have had the privilege of speaking at a number of meetings when Ray Archuleta is also on the agenda. Ray is a tremendous source of knowledge and information on soil health and how cover crops and no-till help improve soil health. Ray is an “expert” in every sense of
Cover Crops and Ray the Soil guy Read More »