Plant Cover Crops

Learning about the benefits of planting cover crops.

winter rye

Why Soybeans Look Great After Cereal Rye

Barry Fisher, Indiana State Agronomist for NRCS in the pit in the grassy area that had shallow roots.

In Mid-August I had the honor of speaking at a cover crop field day in Tipton County, Indiana.  At that field day there were some root pits dug that were quite interesting.  One of the pits was in an area where some top soil had been removed and fill dirt had been put back over the top of where soil had been removed.  Now that area is a “grassy pasture-like” area.  What surprised me was that the roots on the forage grasses were not particularly deep into the soil profile – only 10-15″.  I found them to be much more shallow rooted than expected.

In the other pit the producer had been no-till farming for a number of years and for the past six years using cover crops as well.  In this pit we found soybean roots much deeper than forage grass roots!  See the video here. The cover crop used last year in the field was winter cereal rye.  The soybean crop looked excellent in a very dry time of the year.

Observations from the pit in the soybean field:

  • soybean roots around 40 inches deep
  • large nodules approximately 20 inches deep
  • dense, thick, healthy soybean roots
Markers along the side wall of the soil pit show evidence of soybean roots found at different depths.
Large soybean nodules found around 20 inches deep following a cereal rye cover crop in a continuous no-tilled field.

Obviously we don’t know the yield on the soybeans yet but they sure podded up well and I’m confident went through the drought better than shallower rooted soybeans.

Winter Cereal Rye

One of the most popular cover crops is winter cereal rye.   It is a very versatile cover crop that has few disadvantages.  While it does not have the deep, nor fibrous root system that annual ryegrass has, it reportedly has had 45″ deep roots found in north-central Indiana in May.  Winter cereal rye can be planted later in the fall than other cover crops and still have an excellent stand the next spring.


Advantages of Winter Cereal Rye:

  • Excellent winterhardiness
  • Very good for erosion control
  • Good root depth
  • Can be planted later than other cover crops
  • Makes very good haylage
  • Early maturing so following crop can be planted earlier
  • Assists in weed control for subsequent crop
  • Good scavenger of nutrients
  • Very good for aerial application
  • Very good for winter and spring grazing
  • Makes very good “green manure” if plowed in
  • Mixes well with oats and turnips

Disadvantages of Winter Cereal Rye:

  • Potential for alleopathy issues with following crop (not likely)
  • Not the top choice for erosion control or rooting depth
  • Spring growth can “get out of control” if not killed early
  • Not much fall growth for forage
  • Not the top choice for forage quality

To view a video on Cereal Rye and Radishes watch below!