PLUS you can deduct the seed cost from your taxes !!!

The cover crop takes Nitrogen from the Soil to brak down initially. Upon decomposing the Nitrogen is recovered into the Soil.

As said before, it’s a cover crop. One thing not mentioned already is it greatly aids weed suppression, along with compaction, erosion and nutrient microbes aspects. Also the government at some point may start “encouraging” use of cover crops. All in all cover crops are a great thing for wildlife. Nothing lives in the dirt desert of conventional till fields.

I would check to see if it is not winter rye instead of wheat. Around here we don't plant expensive wheat seed instead of rye for a cover crop. We also have a lot of farmers plant winter rye or triticale and cut it mid-May and chop as silage and then plant corn for silage. Cover crop and also a way to get some organic matter back in the soil. They probably spray it to kill it so when they plant the spring crop you are not planting new seeds into live roots which will suck all the water out of the soil and really impact germination.

Bryce

It's done around here a fair amount. Cereal rye will be planted in the fall and then a crop is no till planted the following year. Around here, the rye is ran over with a crimper roller to terminate it and leave a thatch for the crop to grow through reducing weed pressure. You gain organic matter and and reduce herbicide and fertilizer costs. My impression is that it takes some fine tuning to get it right.

It works well for food plots as well. I spring plant rye or oats, terminate aug. 1st and plant brassica and red clover.

I like the roller crimper idea too.

It’s likely cereal rye rather than wheat, both are cereal grains but i believe rye gives slightly better benefit to the soil, it’s cheap insurance against erosion also. Less than $20per acre to plant i would think.

Here in North Central NE most of the big operations have gone to it.


Mostly rye planted after harvest.


Rye looks a lot like wheat.


They start planting beans, and corn around the end of April, Mostly strip till.

They kill the rye about the time they plant. Plus or minus depending on what other fires need put out.



Sometimes it gets away from them, and you will see a field of headed out rye with little baby corn underneath.




It saves a lot of water, soil, and herbicide.

I'm a small time hobby farmer but always cover crop our growing area. Usually with rye, wheat with Harry vech mixed in. I mow it before planting. It adds organic bio mass and builds soil, suppresses weeds, reduces erosion, and looks much nicer all winter than bare dirt about the worse thing you can have.

In between spring and fall crops I will plant buckwheat on any ideal bare ground for the same reason with the added bonus of in 3 weeks I will get 1-3weeks of good nectar producing flower's for my bee's during the Darth when little else is blooming. Heck I plant it if not needed for a cover crop just for the bee's.

I don't get involved bur there are programs that pay farmers here to plant cover crops off.

In our operation, we plant cover crop behind all the corn acres every fall, as soon as the combine leaves the field. Cover crop is usually barley, but also use wheat, daikon radishes, crimson clover.
-Cover crops aid in conserving moisture in the seed bed, by creating a mulch , while keeping the direct sunlight to the soil minimized.
-Cover crops reduce erosion from both rain and wind
-Cover crops hold your residual nitrogen and other nutrients in place. Also, the legumes will fix nitrogen to reduce applications for the following crop.

We’re seeing lots of benefits of planting cover crops on our farms.

It is killed around May 1st, as soon as the next crop of corn or beans is planted. Sometimes the planter chases the sprayer, but lately were trying to “plant green”, meaning no-till plant into the green standing cover crop, and spray it to kill it before the new crop emerges. It’s been working great for our operation.

John

In my area the only reason guys monkey with cover crops and minimal till is for the payments under certain programs through nrcs

Bet there is a tax deduction on taxes to do that. Expense with out a yield.

We have heavy clay soil here most of it red and some blue. No till was not a good method here for corn but with new technology and new practices we see more of it every year. We do quite a bit of no-till alfalfa , winter wheat and beans. The cover crops work well for us. Farmers get an early good forage for cows and heifers and can then put on 6-8,000 gallons of liquid manure and plant corn. The cover crop roots allow for surface spreading with not much or any tilling. (soil type and slope is a factor). Then when corn silage comes off the winter rye can be planted. We are seeing more farmers planting silage corn a bit later when the soil is warmer, and get faster emergence and more are harvesting silage in October to stretch the season to work with the harvest and winter rye can be planted in mid to late October and still do very well. It is hardier then winter wheat, does better weed control and breaks dormancy earlier than the wheat does. The triticale is a cross between winter rye and winter wheat, does not get as tall, does not spike as quickly and holds higher feed value for a few more days, but yields slightly less.
Cover crops here have many valuable aspects for our soil types and our dairy farming.

Bryce

Thanks bblwi and JO MI BRO, You guys made the most sense and are speaking from experience I'm just amazed they dont cut it for straw as much as a bale of straw is worth. But then you loose the compose for the most part.

Where we live with the demand for straw it would not be worked in the soil it would be made into straw for bedding or a few lbs. per day per head to promote proper rumen function and the farmers would be happy to bring liquid manure to make up for the organic matter lost. Rye is not a preferred feed for livestock around here with our damp climate hard to get it dry enough not to get ergot mold and thus not good for cattle or feed intake. Cows can handle quite a bit of mold and live but it does impact production, rate of gain and repro.

Bryce

People bale straw in Page County VA. There is definitely a demand for straw.

Baling removes a lot of your stored nutrients in your straw/heads. Very similar to these guys baling corn shucks in the fall, you’re removing a lot of your potash from the field, as well as organic matter. Here on our sandy loam soils, this is very important to our grain operation. Gotta take care of your soil, especially when your topsoil layer is inches, not feet like the midwest.

Seed for cover crops is not near as expensive as production wheat or rye .

Maybe someone is supplying the seed for cover crops.

The Upper Susquehanna Coalition will supply seed for cover crops if you live in the river basin.

Way more cover crops being planted in the last 10 years here due to this. Mostly winter wheat.

I see wheat , rye , barley, mostly around here . It is so much better than bare dirt