Plant Cover Crops

Learning about the benefits of planting cover crops.

oilseed radishes

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 plots in December-What can we tell now? part 2

In this post we look at two more videos of mixes on December 2, 2010.  This first mix in this session is of Austrian Winter Peas and GroundHog Radishes.  The seeding rate is 30# Peas and 5# of Radish per acre.  The main thing we observe in this plot is the larger radishes than we saw with the mixes of annual ryegrass, crimson clover and radishes.  Now, in this mix there are more radishes than in the previous two plots (see previous post).  So we have 2-3#/acre more radishes yet larger radishes.  Again, this is NOT scientific, but it sure appears that the radishes, which are luxury consumers of nitrogen, are much larger…thus I conclude, have been fed more  nitrogen from the peas.  It was quite surprising to me to see how much the peas have grown sine I last saw the plot in early November.  The cooler weather seemed to really allow them to grow at a faster pace.

In the second video on this you will see the plot that appears to have the most nitrogen produced.  This mixture is of 17#/acre of AU Robin Crimson Clover and 5#/acre of GroundHog Radish.  In this plot the radishes are noticeably larger in girth and above ground growth.  In fact as you look across the plot it is obvious that this plot is the most “robust” in its growth. In the spring of 2011 I anticipate that the AU Robin Crimson Clover will still be producing more nitrogen.  From previous cover crop field pits we have dug this fall we have found roots on the crimson clover at 24″ deep.  So we have deep rooted cover crops with both items in this mixture as well.

In both of these plots you have excellent nitrogen production and nutrient scavenging!  Personally I like that for a cover crop.  What do you like?

Radish and Crimson Clover Video

This video was taken from a cover crop plot in Newton County Indiana.  The plot was in a field that was prevented from being planted by water ponding in the Spring of 2010.  The mix is called “N-Vest Crimson Cover-All Mix” and is sold by CISCO Seeds.  Even with very little moisture, (it was planted in late July) the mixture grew very well

.  Steve Houghton, Seed Division Manager with CISCO is my guest on this video.  Thanks Steve!

How deep can radish roots go?

GroundHog Radish at 6 weeks 001
I imagine that the finer roots went deeper than 15"...and maybe much deeper from what I am learning!

After 6 weeks my GroundHog Radish is around 12″ deep and 1″ in circumference at the top.  How deep can radish roots go?  Because we need to know things like that I have been doing quite a bit of research.  The attached chart shows how deep some radishes can go…over 4 feet deep!  WOW!

http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/010137veg.roots/010137ch17.htmlRadish Root depth
Research done in the 1950's shows Early Scarlet Turnip White-tipped radish roots can go over 4' deep!

Radish Plot Report from June 26

Radish plot 013
This is is the variety I called "Stubby" in the previos post...it's very shallow rooted versus the other varieties in the test. Let's hope that this is not the variety that someone sells as "Big Bubba" Radishes for your cover crops!
Radish plot 006
This variety was among the deepest rooted in the trial.

I planted a cover crop Radish plot over Memorial Day Weekend (5/29) in my garden plot.  I have 5 varieties in the plot from around the world.  My goal is to see what differences there are in the different Radishes being sold in the USA for cover crops.  I replicated the plots so that each variety would be in 2 times with one variety as a check in each of the 4 rows.  My children and I did some plot work on June 26, 4 weeks after I planted the plot.  We thinned out on rep so that there is approximately 4″ between the radishes.  The other two reps are thick…too thick actually, but I want to show what happens at an approximately 12#/acre rate (as some seed company folks recommend).  When thinning the rep I measured the roots of each variety.  BOY, what a difference I found!  Two varieties  have around 8- 9″ deep roots.  two varieties have around 4-6″ deep roots, while one variety has 3″ deep roots.  Now, when purchasing a VNS Radish you might get any of these…or all of them mixed together.  I am also testing these varieties because companies want to sell these on the market as deep rooted cover crop radishes.  They will be called “Big Bubba” Radishes or something like that, but buyer beware.

Oats…a wonderful and versatile cover crop

Oats and Radishes
Oats and Oilseed Radishes with hog manure. Planted after wheat. This makes for a great combination.
Oats and Oilseed Radish Mar 16 2010 - 4566 (4)
The Oats and Oilseed Radishes in the spring of the year. These photos are from the same field.

Oats are one of the more versatile cover crops as they can be planted various times of the season and used as an excellent cover and an excellent forage crop.  Oats work well alone, but especially well in mixes with oilseed radishes, turnips, Berseem and Crimson Clovers, and Austrian Winter Peas, etc…  Oats work well for erosion control and are very good nutrient scavengers.  Oats (and mixes with radishes or turnips) work very well for manure nutrient management.

Advantages of Oats

  • Scavenges N
  • Deep and fibrous root mass
  • Works well with aerial application
  • Excellent for forage
  • Winterkills
  • Oats work very well with other cover crops in mixes

Disadvantages of Oats

  • Bin run oats will have weed seed in them
  • Winterkills

Plant Oats at 1 ½- 2 bushels/acre for cover/grain; 3 bushels/acre for cover/baleage