• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Plant Cover Crops

Learning about the benefits of planting cover crops.

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Newsletter

sustainable agriculture

Dec 30 2011

Cover Crops in the Great Plains – a view from a long time cover crop user- Part 1

I’ve had the privilege of meeting a gentleman from Kansas named Paul Conway.  Paul is an avid “cover cropper” and he has been for nearly 20 years! Paul reminds me of my father, who was an early pioneer of no-till (over 40 years of no-tilling on our farms).  I have asked Paul to give a more western feel to this blog since he has a different perspective on some of the cover crops that work well in the Great Plains that I typically don’t share.  I will be using Paul’s writings with his full permission.

In this post I will share Paul’s perspective on how and where cover crops fit in different systems.  Again, these are Paul’s views from his perspective, of which I find myself agreeing with.

Vegetables:  Using cover crops is vital for long term sustainable vegetable production.  Vegetables are fertility hogs. Intensive vegetable production will ruin soils no matter how much fertilizer you use. Fortunately the quick maturity and low residue of most vegetables allows many opportunities for the use of cover crops, more so than with field crops.

This is good and bad news. The variety of choices can overwhelm growers who want simple answers.  Use manure whenever possible in vegetable production to build organic matter especially when used with the cover crop grasses such as sorghum-sudan, grain rye, annual ryegrass, etc.

There are many opportunities for cover crops in both conventional and organic cropping, actually more so than in field crops.

Traditional field crop systems:  By this I mean the 1940-50’s ideal of animal husbandry and cash crops on the same farm supported by a varied rotation of row crops, small grains, and forage legumes (either alone or with grasses).  Cover crops are useful but not vital, as the rotation and manure application keeps the production system going.  Cover crops allow modifications to the rotation. Also annual warm and cold season grazed cover crops saves money and further diversifies the rotation.

Modern monoculture field crop systems: Corn and soybeans aren’t much of a rotation since they are both row crop summer annuals.  Cover crops are vital to long term sustainable field crop production since they essentially mimic the effects of a decent rotation as well as provide the agronomic benefits that you are well aware of.  Cover crops are easier to use if small grains are added to the rotation.

Grazing: Grazing warm season as well as cool season cover crops is a direct financial benefit of cover crops, as opposed to the recognized indirect financial benefits and adds diversity to the rotation.

 

A Note from Paul Conway about who he is and about his experiences:

I grew up mostly overseas and I have gardened all my life.  When I was a teenager I worked on farms in the summer.  I retired from the US Army in 1993 and started my market garden to grow vegetables commercially.  I have done this ever since except for 17 months in 2006-7 when I was recalled to active duty and sent to Iraq.

I have farmed organically since 1993. I was organically certified from 1994 until 2004 when I switched to Certified Naturally Grown, a certifier more friendly to small scale local market vegetable growers.  

I should say that organic farming does not work unless you pay almost fanatic attention to building and maintaining healthy soil. This means good crop rotations with a mix of row crops, small grains, and forages.  You must use manure (if available) and cover crops/green manures.  The degree of mix between the two is complex and farm dependent.  Simply switching to organically approved inputs without a good soil building rotation will not produce good yields.

Also, thanks to Paul for serving the USA in the armed services!

Written by Dave Robison · Categorized: Cover Crop Benefits · Tagged: corn, cover crops, Cover Crops in the Great Plains, fertilizer, grazing cover crops, manure management, manure management with cover crops, row crops, soybeans, sustainable agriculture, vegetables

Primary Sidebar

Categories

  • Adding Nitrogen to cover crops (1)
  • Cover Crop Application Method (1)
  • Cover Crop Benefits (75)
    • Breaking Up Compaction (18)
      • Cover Crop Roots (12)
    • Erosion Control (1)
    • Higher Yields (22)
      • Nitrogen from Cover Crops (12)
      • Planting Radish with Wheat (1)
    • Lower Inputs (4)
    • Manure management (6)
      • Slurry Seeding Cover Crops (1)
    • Soil Improvement (15)
      • Cover Crops and Earthworms (6)
      • Inoculating Cover Crop Legumes (1)
    • Water infiltration/percolation (3)
    • Weed Suppression (5)
  • Cover Crop Challenges (69)
    • Aerial Application (9)
    • Aerial Application into Soybeans (2)
    • Chemical Use and Cover Crops (7)
    • Cover Crops in Iowa (3)
    • Cover Crops in Wisconsin (6)
    • Crop insurance (4)
    • Delayed Spring Planting (8)
      • Planting into Tall Austrian Winter Peas (2)
    • Dormant Seed (2)
    • Establishing in dry conditions (2)
    • High-boy application (1)
    • Killing Annual Ryegrass in the Spring (7)
    • Misinformation and Myths (5)
    • Prevented planting (11)
    • Radish Smell (1)
    • Risk Management (5)
    • Seed Selection: What to Plant After… (11)
      • Corn (3)
      • Soybeans (2)
      • Wheat (7)
    • Seeding Rates (3)
    • Stand Establishment Following Cover Crops (5)
    • Timing of Planting (3)
    • Wild Radishes (1)
    • Winterhardiness (3)
  • Cover Crop Champions (1)
  • Cover Crop Wearables (1)
  • Cover Crops – Return on Investment (2)
  • Cover Crops & No-Till (1)
  • Cover Crops effect on spring Soil temperatures (4)
  • Cover Crops in Minnesota (4)
  • Cover Crops in the Northland (8)
  • Education (70)
    • Aerial Application Certification (2)
    • Cover Crop Meetings (9)
    • Cover Crop Plots (12)
    • Cover Crop Research (12)
    • Decision Making Tool (2)
    • Field Days (11)
    • Improved Varieties (6)
    • Midwest Cover Crops Council (3)
    • Midwest Cover Crops Field Guide (1)
    • Online Training Seminars (4)
    • Radish Plot (7)
    • Surveys (3)
    • Webinars (3)
    • YouTube Videos (13)
  • Frost Seeding (1)
  • Grazing Cover Crops (10)
    • Cover Crops for Forage (3)
    • Fall Grazing (3)
  • Lower Yields possible (1)
  • Seeding Mult-Species Cover Crop Mix (1)
  • Terminating Cover Crops (1)
  • Types of Cover Crops (61)
    • Annual Ryegrass (10)
    • Austrian Winter Peas (9)
    • Cowpeas (2)
    • Crimson Clover (10)
    • Hairy Vetch (2)
    • Kura Clover (1)
    • Mustard (1)
    • Oats (4)
    • Radishes (24)
    • Red Clover (3)
    • Sorghum Sudangrass (1)
    • Sudangrass (1)
    • Turnips (4)
    • Winter Barley (1)
    • Winter Cereal Rye (12)

Newsletter

Cover Crop Resources

  • CISCO Seeds Cover Crops
  • Conservation Cropping Systems Initiative
  • Cover Crop Decision Tool
  • Midwest Cover Crops Council
  • Sustainable Crop Rotations with Cover Crops

Other Farm Resources

  • Practical Farmers of Iowa

Connect Online

Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on TwitterFollow Us on YouTubeFollow Us on RSS

Footer

Popular Videos

Pages

  • Blog
  • Why Cover Crops?
  • About
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Advertise Here
  • Newsletter

Copyright © 2023 · Altitude Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in