The weather conditions this spring forced farmers who plant cover crops to plant green this year.
Ron Zelle of Waverly, Iowa, has been planting cover crops for 10 years on all of his 300 acres of soybeans and corn.
He said he uses two different cover crops on his soybean ground, but the rapeseed that he planted last September struggled to get started.
Zelle said he turns sheep out on a third of the cover crops. The sheep were able to graze through last December on the cereal rye and rapeseed cover crop.
When it came to planting this spring, he planted “green” and ended up not planting soybeans until the third week of May, when the cereal rye was waist- to head-high.
“I started to plant cover crops to get more organic matter; however, the weed control with the soybeans and cereal rye is great,” Zelle said.
He said that for planting this year, he increased the down pressure. He runs a John Deere 7000 planter with regular rubber press well and a shark tooth row cleaner that removes debris right in front of each row.
Zelle said the corn went in well but there was some concern where the ground had packed down.
“The emergence was pretty good,” he said.
Zelle said that he used a 15-foot cult packer to crimp the cover crop down and to firm the seed bed.
There is a tremendous amount of organic matter to decompose now, he said.
One benefit to planting into a cover crop, according to Iowa State University trials, is greater weed suppression. In studies conducted in 2019 and 2020, a cover crop terminated 14 days after soybean planting provided higher levels of marestail (horseweed) and waterhemp suppression compared to termination dates of seven days before soybean planting or at soybean planting, according to a university news release.
The cover crop terminated at the time of soybean planting provided a greater than 30% reduction in waterhemp emergence during the growing season compared to no cover crop plots.
In addition to reductions in waterhemp density, the cover crop residue reduced the size and biomass of the waterhemp plants at the time of postemergence herbicide application. The cover crop resulted in greater than 65% reduction in waterhemp seed production compared to no cover crop plots.
Research conducted by Practical Farmers of Iowa suggests the greater the biomass of the cover crop, the higher the potential for a yield drag on the crop, though. In on-farm trials conducted between 2016-21, on average, corn yield when planting green was 95% that of corn that was planted one to three weeks after the cereal rye cover crop was terminated.
Kirk Brandt of Corning, Iowa, has been planting cover crops for 10 years and said this year was the best year he has had for cover crops. This spring, his rye was between 5 and 6 feet tall.
When it comes to emergence considerations, over the years, he has found the ideal soil conditions are like a garden bed.
“If the soil is too dry you won’t get the population or stand that you are wanting,” Brandt said.
He said with cereal rye, they bale it all in the fall then turn the cows on to the remainder at the beginning of December until the snow falls.
He uses the cover crop in his sileage mix.
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