southern MN | Soil Guy - 10/7/2024 20:29
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.
Thanks!
1. If we graze the cover crop (I have at times as well) or otherwise get forage off of it, it’s not really a cover crop just for the soil any more. It’s a real crop. A great use mind you, but just for the definition of a cover crop, I think it turns it into a cash second crop? Probably good soil benefits, manure and bits of the cover crop left for the soil, but it would seem it needs to be in a different category than strictly ‘cover crop for soil health’.
2. I live in a typically snow melt and rain all spring region. The few times we have a dry spring, oh boy do I struggle with my cover crop patch it dries everything up. I hear you. Not being used to dry planting conditions, I sure mismanage the times it is dry. Since my covers wake up fairly late, they don’t help me that much with drying out a wet spring either, but that’s on me.
3. Years ago I went to a local demonstration of cover crop interseeding and other cover crop efforts. While I enjoyed the presentations and field demo, I kind of got taken aback by all the presenters not wanting to hear any other way of doing things, and only followed the govt seeding types and rates to collect the govt cover crop money. I felt by the end there was actually very little effort or consideration or innovation, unfortunately. When that was what they said the show would be all about. Just follow the govt money.
I typically end up with a mix of clovers, alfalfa, turnips, and oats regrowth in fall, and the clovers and alfalfa in early spring.
Really appreciate your answers. Thanks!
Paul |
Anyone have any success with cover crops?
