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 • TOP OF SOIL PROFILE Drainage • Soil warming 4” • Solutions? • Platey structure=compaction

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 overalls 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) 2 WEEKS Later Early

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 10 th , 2009 Diakon Tillage Radishes No-Manure Manure Sorghum Sudan No-Manure Manure

Research Sept 17 th , 2009 Diakon Tillage Radishes No-Manure Manure Sorghum Sudan No-Manure Manure

Corn Yield (bu/acre)- Schlechty Farms Research Means for a cover crop followed by the same mean letters are not significantly different (0.05).

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?