Cover Crops Greg McGlinch Darke Soil and Water Conservation - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Cover Crops

Greg McGlinch Darke Soil and Water Conservation District Technician

Outline

• 5 Tips for Beginning Cover

Croppers

• Equipment & Seeding Tips
• Termination
• Research: Is it worth it?

Summer and Fall Tillage Tool Spring Drainage Winter Cover

Cover Crops Importance

• Nutrient Management
• Manure Application
• Nutrient retention
• Ease potential regulations
• Soil tilth
• Increase OM
• Reduce compaction
• Weed Pressure

Tip # 1: Set a Goal

• What do you want to achieve?
• Break up compaction or build

soils

• Forage
• Fix Nitrogen
• Reduce erosion
• Scavenge nitrogen

Soil Health!!!!

• Low OM & high clay content creates issues
• Compaction
• Drainage
• Soil warming
• Solutions?

Platey structure=compaction TOP OF SOIL PROFILE

4”

Tip #2: Start Small

• 20 to 40 acres
• Manageable in the Spring

Tip # 3: Cover Crop Type

• Know the cover crop type and how it fits in your

rotation

• Some cover crops will smell! Inform your

neighbors

• Utilize your resources for advice
• Oats and radish are good cover crops to get your

feet wet after wheat.

• 20-30 lbs oats with 2-3 lbs radish per acre

Daikon Tillage Radish

• Planted in August after wheat harvest
• 4-8 lbs/acre for cover crop
• Manure application and nutrient retention
• Mixed 1.5 lbs/acre with wheat in fall
• Scavenges nitrogen
• Improves drainage
• Killed at temperatures below 20 degrees
• Know your variety
• Work well in cover crop mixtures

Cereal Rye

• Establishment
• Seed @ 40-56 lbs/acre
• Plant up until middle of

November

• Plant at a slight angle
• Kill in spring, before jointing
• Herbicide application
• Glyphosate (28-32oz)
• 2-4D (16 oz)
• 15 lb AMS
• 1-2 gallons 28% N
• Planting & Sidedressing

Cover Crop Type in Rotation

• Soybeans
• Cereal rye, Annual Rye, Spelts, Wheat-Radish
• Corn
• Cereal rye (Increase seed population)
• Wheat
• Medium Red Clover, Austrian Winter Peas,

Soybeans

• Tillage radishes, Annual Rye, Sorghum Sudan,

Oats

Tip # 4: Economics

• Make sure its feasible
• $15-$35
• Meets goals

Tip # 5: Don’t give up!

• I have not failed. I’ve just found

10,000 ways that won’t work- Thomas Edison

• Opportunity is missed by most

people because it is dressed in

• veralls and looks like work.-

Thomas Edison

Seeding Equipment

• Use equipment you have.
• Setting Rates (Drills)
• Use Graphite (If needed)
• Use seed charts from dealers or compare to

familiar seed sizes

• Document settings for future
• Good seed to soil contact important

Seeding Equipment

http://allamakeeswcd.org

Residue Management Fall

• Harvest
• Even disbursement of crop residue
• Corn head that shatters stalk

Residue Management

Cover Crops

Looking Upstream Looking Downstream

Termination

Termination

• Dry: terminate early
• Wet: utilize for evapotranspiration
• Select herbicide to kill cover crop but no residual

effect on cash crop

• Legal label rate
• Temperature, time of day
• Weather conditions, rain events
• Minimum of 8-10 days before corn planting
• Corn: add N to balance C:N ratio
• Crimping: pay attention to stage (flowering or

heading)

Termination

• Direct seeding of soybeans into living cover crop
• Successful Cover Crop Termination with Herbicides

(Purdue Extensions Factsheet Ws-50-W)

Early Later

2 WEEKS

Research

Darke & Maimi Co. 2009

Three replications of three Cover Crops

(Tillage Radish, Sorghum Sudan Grass, & Teff)

Purpose

Show producers how to manage nutrients Reduce the loss of nutrients Show the benefits of a cover crop

Each replication consists of:

Cover crop with manure application Cover crop with no manure application No cover crop with manure application No cover crop with no manure application

Research

August 10th, 2009

No-Manure Manure No-Manure Manure

Diakon Tillage Radishes Sorghum Sudan

Research

Sept 17th, 2009

No-Manure Manure No-Manure Manure

Diakon Tillage Radishes Sorghum Sudan

Research

Means for a cover crop followed by the same mean letters are not significantly different (0.05).

Corn Yield (bu/acre)- Schlechty Farms

Something to Think About

“A field becomes exhausted by constant tillage.”-Ovid “Take rest; a field that has rested gives a beautiful crop.”

• Ovid

Questions?