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| Hey Paul
1. Yes. Silage allows us to get covers on earlier like radish’s and turnips and typically we will graze those. Some fields where we seed cereal rye we will graze those as well.
2. I guess I shouldn’t say we haven’t seen any improvement in organic matter but it hasn’t been huge. Our rye got real tall this year ahead of corn planting and yet our corn went through the drought we had in June as bad if not worse than some of our neighbors. We’ll have good corn this year but it took our number of rows around on the ear down from where it could’ve been. Covers do help hold the soil in place and helps eliminate washouts. It does help feed the biology which in my book is a plus. In some cases it’s helped with weed control but not to a level where we can eliminate herbicides or reduce them by much. I think they’ve overall been a net positive but no way am I going to say they’ve been a game changer from a production standpoint and even a soil health standpoint. To be fair though cereal rye alone covers 85-90% of our acres. Maybe a mix of covers would give us the improvement we are looking for.
3. I don’t sign the checks on our farm so it’s not my decision. I make my living as a consultant. I think government programs have been key to getting cover crops implemented. I think if those went away, covers would go away on some of our acres but that would also depend on any carbon program we might sign up for or program that a grain buyer would have that gives us a premium. I feel most growers I talk to feel the same way. They need to be incentivized to do it. | |
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Anyone have any success with cover crops?
