Red clover can fix nitrogen, suppress weeds and improve crop yields. Based on test plot research in Illinois, a good stand of red clover can provide between 50 and 100 pounds of nitrogen per acre.
The practice can be useful in some scenarios but not all. Farmers need to evaluate the potential impact on 2024 yield outcomes. Perhaps a bigger concern is how the practice impacts weed management, especially waterhemp.
Eighty percent of U.S. growers participating in the 2022-23 National Cover Crop Survey report trying cover crops. Two Indiana farmers share what they've learned along the way and some recommendations.
Participants who seek this one-time, voluntary termination do not have to repay rental payments. But they must make requests for voluntary termination in writing through their local USDA office.
A dust storm rippled through the Midwest late last week, followed by rain in some parts and continued heat in others. This weather event highlights soil safeguarding needs, according to Conservation Agronomist Roberts.
Scientists in Ohio are testing a new product to be mounted on the rear of combines, effectively killing weed seeds on-site to reduce weed populations year-over-year.
In 2021, the first year the program was made available, producers enrolled 12.2 million acres of cover crops in PCCP, capturing a collective $59.5 million in premium subsidies.
Running a vertical tool now can help break up tracks and ruts your harvest equipment left behind. It can also help you address volunteer corn -- yes, it's likely to be a problem based on corn lost during harvest.
Brian Doerr recently introduced regenerative agriculture practices, including cover crops, on his family's Nebraska farm. He details his decision-making and implementation steps here.
In a matter of a few short years, you can undo more than 100 years of work. How? For each 1” of topsoil that is eroded, it takes at least 100 years to regenerate.
Cover crops continue to work their way onto fields across the Midwest. While the benefits might be well known, so are the challenges in developing an on-farm system to work in each situation.
In 2017, Bob Recker kicked open the door on 60” row corn, and exposed a ton of questions on sunlight capture, weed suppression, cover crops, and much more.
Rost switched his farm to 100% no-till the following year and experimented with cover crops in a few areas. Today cover crops blanket every acre of his farm and he’s dedicated to keeping it that way.
As farmers sprint toward healthy soils, cover crops are often critical, so much so that farmers increased cover crop acres nationally by 50% to 15.4 million acres in 2017.
Cover crops can provide a variety of benefits, but if you don’t terminate them well they could limit your cash crop’s success. There is more than one way to eliminate a cover crop.
Wedneday La Crosse Seed announced it would acquire the inventory and brands of Heritage Seed Company and will take over the service and support of its customers.
