capturing the full potential of cover crops
DESCRIPTION
I shared this presentation at the Illinois Specialty Crops and Organic Conference in Springfield IL on 1/13TRANSCRIPT
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Haphazard
cover cropping
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What am I
supposed to do
now?
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“What cover
crop should I
plant ???”
Very common question received
by CC seed vendors in early fall
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Well… what do you
want your cover
crops to do for you?
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http://www.ncl.ac.uk/tcoa/files/breakcrops_orgagr.pdf
Cover crops are not the missing puzzle piece(s)
in your current crop rotation(s)!
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• Problems and opportunities for over 500 crop
sequences
• Characteristics of more than 60 crops and 70 weeds
• Crop diseases hosted by over 80 weed species
• Modes of transmission for 250 diseases of 24 crops
• Thirteen sample four- and five-year vegetable and
grain crop rotations Managing Crop Rotation Chart
with key tasks & steps
•Sample worksheets and calculations
• Step-by-step procedure for determining crop rotation
plans
Overview of book contents
Rotations
should evolve
not revolve
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• Problems and opportunities for over 500 crop
sequences
• Characteristics of more than 60 crops and 70 weeds
• Crop diseases hosted by over 80 weed species
• Modes of transmission for 250 diseases of 24 crops
• Thirteen sample four- and five-year vegetable and
grain crop rotations Managing Crop Rotation Chart
with key tasks & steps
•Sample worksheets and calculations
• Step-by-step procedure for determining crop rotation
plans
Overview of book contents
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Excellent information on integrating cover crops with agronomic crops
http://ohioline.osu.edu/sag-fact/pdf/0009.pdf
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Start planning today! • Anticipate planting windows
• Match objectives with species
• Confirm seed availability
• Make sure seeding equipment is ready
• Identify realistic termination methods
• Allocate labor
• Develop contingency plans
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Crop
planted
on May 15
and harvested
on October 1
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Opportunities for planting cover crops
• Dormant seeding early or late winter
• Frost seeding
• In the spring
• When planting summer crops
• Prevent plant scenarios
• At last cultivation
• After small grains
• After vegetables
• After seed corn or silage corn
• Aerial or high clearance seeding into standing crops in late summer/early fall
• After long season crops
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What is this CC?
Phacelia
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http://calshort-lamp.cit.cornell.edu/bjorkman/covercrops/spring-mustard.php
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Klaas and Mary Martens,
organic innovators in
Central NY State, are
reporting excellent results
with frost-seeded
confectionary mustard
ahead of dry beans
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Mustard variety trial at the Allison farm in early June 2011
Pacific Gold Ida Gold
Slower to mature Faster to mature
More biomass Less biomass
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Mustards are very responsive to N
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Mustards are easy to kill with tillage
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Sunflowers planted 7/17 and 7/29 in 2010 and 7/7 in 2011
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JD 730 Air-Disk drill on Jack Erisman’s farm in Pana, IL
Jack uses this rig to drill soybeans on 6" rows (~ 280,000/ac)
while also dropping about 2 bushel of rye and some
micronutrients
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Planted before heavy rain Planted after heavy rain
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Small amount of foxtail… almost no broadleaves
~ 20 bushels more yield
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Lots of weeds but very few
towering monsters of maternity :->
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Grazing brassicas, clovers, small grains, a. ryegrass, sorghum-sudan
Nutrient scavenging/cycling brassicas, small grains, annual ryegrass
Bio-drilling brassicas, sugarbeet, sunflower,
sorghum-sudan sweet clover, alfalfa
N-fixation clovers, vetches, lentil, winter pea, chickling vetch, sun hemp, cowpea,
soybean
Bio-activation/fumigation brassicas, sorghum-sudan, sun hemp, sesame
Weed suppression brassicas, sorghum-sudan, cereal rye, buckwheat
GRAZING = #1 way to make cover crops pay!
Match CC objectives with species
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Oats, turnips, annual ryegrass and wheat
Oats, turnips and cereal rye
Forage kale
Mystery brassica
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OATS & PEAS
Spring Planted/Summer grazing
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Hu
nte
r
Have you used any forage brassicas
as cover crops?
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• Cover crops (winter or summer) can provide high-
quality forage and increase economic return and
farm diversity, but some farmers have been
reluctant to take this advantage due to perceived
“compaction” caused by animal trampling.
• Grazing of cover crops can compact soil, but
not to the detrimental levels often perceived.
Franzluebbers AJ and JA Stuedemann. 2008.
Soil physical responses to cattle grazing cover
crops under conventional and no tillage in the
Southern Piedmont USA.
Soil and Tillage Research 100, 141-153.
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Terminating spring planted oats with a soil finisher
~ 3 weeks before planting corn
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Are you equipped to handle a situation like this?
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10’ Howard Rotavator tilling ~ 3” deep with C blades
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Complete kill after 1 pass
and 2 days of sun
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Typical weather in spring 2009-2011 :-<
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Moldboard plowing can be the best option
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Are you familiar with the fence post principle?
Zone of maximum biological
activity and rapid residue decay
Deeper burial does not optimize decay but sends weed
seeds into deep dormancy and brings deeply dormant
weed seeds to the surface where they germinate slowly
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Performance over Price • Buy CC seed on value not price
Vendor Cereal rye Annual
ryegrass Hairy vetch Medium red
clover WI 0.188 0.52 (0.69) 1.60 (1.98) 1.22 (1.62)
IL1 0.147 (0.179) 0.47 (0.63) 1.42 (1.65)
MN 0.153 (0.171) 0.50 (0.56) 1.70 (1.90) 1.66 (1.84)
NE1 0.157 (0.179) 0.55 (0.65) 2.10 (2.50) 1.65 (1.95)
IL2 (0.213) (0.75) (2.20) (2.60) IL3 0.188 (0.214) (0.70)
MO 0.197 0.46 1.47 1.21 IL4 (0.20) (0.60) (1.80) (1.75) IA (0.195) (0.62) (2.00) 2.00 IN (0.239) (0.75) (2.20)
(IL farmer) 0.125 0.48 1.05
Cover crop seed price survey from 2010 ($/lb)
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The cheapest seed available is
frequently VNS – variety not stated
Do you know the difference
between “variety name” and
“brand name”?
How important is uniform seed
size and vigor to you?
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How much
is good
technical
support
worth to
you?
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Reduce Risk • Enroll in programs that pay you to plant CCs
• Use time tested CC methods
• Use more than one method of planting CCs
• Plant mixtures/cocktails
• Grow some crops e.g. small grains,
vegetables, corn silage, shorter season
hybrids/varieties that are harvested early
• Irrigate
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The
most tried and true
cover cropping system
in the Midwest region
Frost seeded red
clover
Traditional cover cropping in the Midwest
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Drilling CC after small grain harvest
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There are many options other than drilling
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Annual ryegrass & radishes aerial
seeded into soybeans at leaf drop.
Aerial seeding is fast and relatively cheap
but more sensitive to weather
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Effective multi-tasking or cover crop chaos???
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Beware of hype! • Cover crops are not a silver bullet solution
to any problem
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The rock
star of
cover
crops!!!
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With lots of space, moisture, fertility and time to
grow, individual radishes can get huge!
but a good stand of 1” radishes
will probably do more for your soil!
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Tillage
Radish®
plots
control
Soil compaction
decreased by >40%
Ohio State
University
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Crop root density as affected by previous cover crop
Chen and Weil (2006)
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Roots at ~ 40”
after 45 days
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• much less top growth but deeper roots than cereal rye
• much less winter hardy than cereal rye
• can be difficult to kill with tillage
• can be a serious weed in small grains
Radishes are not the only good bio-driller!!
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Learn from cover crop innovators
• Attend field days/host a field day
• Attend conferences
• Participate in internet forums
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Field day at Steve Groff’s farm
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Field day at Steve Groff’s farm
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~ 120 profiles including ~ 20 organic farmers since 2008
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Read about CCs in on-line forums
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Subject Replies Views
> 100 threads and > 200,000 views in 2011
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Use precision planting
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Bio-strip till
September 2008
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Attempt #2 September 2009
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Tillage radish on 30” rows with oats on 7.5” rows
November 2009
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Radish planted on 30” rows using milo plates
in mid-August 2010
Attempt #3
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Attempt #4
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Cultivating
radishes on 30”
rows
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Ridges with
dead radishes in
spring 2011
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Planted
beautifully
but we decided
to replant after a
month of rain :-<
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Keep good records – Date of planting
– Seeding rates, drill settings…
– Take lots of photos!
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Optimize fertility • Inoculate legumes
• Inoculate non-legumes?
• Fertilize cover crops when
residual fertility is low
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Soybean seeds
often contain
>25% more N than
was fixed within
their nodules
Do all legumes add N to the soil?
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Hairy Vetch 3,260 lbs of DM/ac
141 lbs of N/ac
133 lbs of K/ac
18 lbs of P/ac
52 lbs of Ca/ac
18 lbs of Mg/ac
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?
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Learn from research On-farm research
• Leave check strips - replicate if possible
• Work with universities/NRCS
Research station trials
• Make suggestions
• Pay attention to results
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Practical Farmers of Iowa
Field Crops Project on-farm research questions
1. Can cover crop seed planted using a modified
highboy have better establishment then an
airplane?
2. How can we improve use of spring cover crops?
3. What other species of cover crops work in IA?
What are the yields of improved organic and non-GMO
corn hybrids?
5. What are the yields and aphid counts of aphid-
resistant soybeans?
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Cereal rye inter-seeded with soybean for
in-row weed control at the Allison Farm
Cereal rye and several other CC species that require
vernalization will be planted over soybeans rows
using the insecticide boxes on our planter in 2012
No significant differences in yield between 20&40
lbs of rye in row vs. 60 lbs broadcast vs. control
(all trt means > 40 bu/a)
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Joe Rothermel’s new rig
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Cover crops planted with
insecticide boxes while stripping
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Wheat + radish trial at the Allison farm
November 2010
3 lb/a = 2 lb/a = 1 lb/a > 0 lb/c
~ 2.5 bu/a yield boost
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Annual ryegrass variety trial
at the Allison farm
November 2010
Bruiser, Bounty and KB Royal had the most top growth
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> 36”
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ARG is tough to kill
mechanically
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Early July 2009
Organic No-till research
at the Allison Farm
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Early August 2009
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Early November 2009
Plot yields ranged from 51.6 to 58.6 bu/ac
No significant differences between systems
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November 2010
Plot yields ranged from 42-52 bu/ac
Significant foxtail pressure
but almost no broadleaf weeds
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August 2011
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November 2011
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Soybean health experiment – 6 locations across IL
Mustard
Rapeseed
Canola
Cereal rye
Cereal rye
November 2010
Soybeans no-till drilled into cereal rye
were the top yielder by ~ 10 bushels
incorporated
pre-plant
no-till
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Cover crop system Relative
corn yield
Volunteer oats 79%
Radishes planted on 30” 99%
Radishes drilled on 7.5” 91%
Corn following cover crop experiment in 2011
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Radishes on 30” rows with volunteer oats in fall 2010
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Cover crops generally require more management
than manure or purchased nutrient amendments
Wow...cover crops
are not idiot-proof!
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Good advice from Steve Groff…
TREAT
YOUR
COVER
CROPS
LIKE YOUR
CASH
CROPS!