I shared this presentation on 2/3 at the 17th annual W IL and NE MO no-till conference in Quincy IL.

2. Why cover crops?

3. Erosion continues to be a serious issue in
W Illinois and NE Missouri
(#s = % of sample points)
County < 1 *T 1-2*T > 2*T
Adams 85 12 3
These
Brown 75 17 8
Hancock 91 6
fields 3
Henderson 91 7 need 2
McDonough 85 12 more 3
Pike 70 18 green! 11
Schuyler 83 13 4
http://www.agr.state.il.us/darts/References/transect/transect06.pdf
T = tolerable level of erosion according to NRCS
(traditional but controversial concept)

4. How many extreme precipitation
events has your farm
experienced in the last 3 years?
How much erosion
occurred during these
events on your farm?

5. Impact of the 2008 floods on IA soils
20 tons per acre average soil loss across 2,284,000 ac!
Conservation structures needing repair
12,157 Grassed Waterways
8,137 Terraces
3,375 Water and Sediment Control Basins
800 Grade Stabilization Structures
Fields with combinations of two or more conservation
practices (e.g., no-till + cover crops) performed much
better than fields with a single practice

6. Farmers know that cover crops control erosion
CTIC survey of 809 Corn Belt farmers in 2010

7. Farmers also know that improved drainage
improves yields (and reduces erosion)
Yield maps
have made
drainage
problems
more
obvious

8. Impact of Ag Drainage
More infiltration = less run-off = less erosion
…and more loss of some
nutrients and ag chemicals
H2O
Gulf of
Mexico

9. Western IL
contains a lot
of soils that
are naturally
prone to
nitrate
leaching

10. Drainage practices should be combined
with other practices that reduce leaching
REDUCTION POTENTIAL
Reduce N rate by 25 lbs/a
combine summer annuals with winter annuals

11. The science is clear - cover crops can reduce nitrate leaching
at lower cost than most other practices!
Bare fallow
Kaspar et al. J. Environ. Qual. 36:1503-1511

12. Where are the best places for
cover crops on your farm?
When is the best time for
establishment and termination?
What needs to be adjusted
to find the best fit?

13. Are you familiar with the term
Precision Conservation?

14. Haphazard
cover cropping

15. What am I
supposed to do
now?

16. Very common question received
by CC seed vendors in early fall
“What cover
crop should I
plant ???”

17. Well… what do you
want your cover
crop to do for you?

18. Cover crops are not the missing puzzle piece(s)
in your current cropping systems!

19. 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

21. Crop
planted
on May 15
and harvested
on October 1

22. Opportunities for planting cover crops
• Dormant seeding early or late winter
• Frost seeding
• In the spring
• When planting summer crops
• Prevent plant scenarios
• While sidedressing
• 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 corn/bean grain harvest

23. Match CC objectives with species
Grazing
GRAZING = #1 way to make cover crops pay!
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

24. Forage kale Oats, turnips, annual ryegrass and wheat
Oats, turnips and cereal rye Mystery brassica

25. OATS & PEAS
Spring Planted/Summer grazing

26. Have you used any forage brassicas as
cover crops?
Hunter

27. 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.
• 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.

28. Performance over Price
• Buy CC seed on value not price
Cover crop seed price survey from 2010 ($/lb)
Vendor Cereal rye Annual Hairy vetch Medium red
ryegrass 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

29. 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?

30. How much is
good
technical
support
worth to
you?

31. 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
• Plan residual herbicide programs carefully
• Irrigate

32. Traditional cover cropping in the Midwest
The
most tried and true
cover cropping system in
the Midwest region
Frost seeded red clover

33. There are lots of options after small grain harvest

34. Does your county look like this?
corn
soy

35. Corn, Soybean and Wheat acres in Western IL
(Adams, Brown, Fulton, Hancock, Henderson, Knox, McDonough, Schuyler and Warren)
1400000
1200000
1000000
Acres
800000
Corn
Soy
600000
wheat
400000
200000
0
2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005

36. Drilling CC after corn/bean harvest is a good
option for a limited # of acres!

37. There are many options other than drilling

38. Annual ryegrass & radishes aerial seeded
into soybeans at leaf drop.
Aerial seeding is fast and relatively cheap
but more sensitive to weather

39. Set-up for efficient aerial seeding in SE IA
Steve Nebel

40. Steve
Nebel

41. Steve Nebel

42. IA and IL Aerial Applicator Survey (May-June 2010)
Name Location Experience w/CC Cost
no exp., no customer
Cady Aerial Spray Rock Falls, IL interest $8.00/a norm app $8.50/a cc
Benoit Aerial
Spraying Kankakee, IL turnips and rye $8.00/a norm app $10.00/a cc
Franks Flying
Service Morrison, IL ryegrass and c. rye $8.00/a norm app $10.00/a cc
Reeds Fly-on yes, c. rye, small part
Farming Mattoon, IL of business $8.00/a norm app $12.00/a cc
Killiam Flying rye, wheat on beans, $8.00/a norm app $10.00/ac
Service Carlinville, IL rye on corn or 10/lb
Curless Flying
Service Astoria, IL ryegrass and turnips $8-15.00/a all app.
Klein Flying St. Francisville, ~$12.50/a cc,
Service IL annual rye and turnips $9.00/a liquid app
Agriflite Services Wakarusa, IN rye, wheat, ryegrass ave $15.00/a for cc app.
Al's Aerial $10-15.00/a cc
Spraying Ovid, MI rye and wheat $10.00/a liquid

43. Seeding cover crops
with liquid manure

44. Cover crop seeding while harvesting

45. Effective multi-tasking or cover crop chaos???

46. http://www.greencoverseed.com/

47. http://www.btny.purdue.edu/WeedScience/2011/CoverCrops11.html Cover Crops and Corn and Soybean Herbicides

48. Beware of hype!
Cover crops are not a
silver bullet solution to
any problem

49. The rock
star of
cover
crops!!!

50. 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!

52. control Ohio State
University
Tillage
Radish®
plots
Soil compaction
decreased by >40%

53. Crop root density as affected by previous cover crop
Chen and Weil (2006)

54. Roots at ~ 40”
after 45 days

55. 4’

56. Radishes are not the only good bio-driller!!
• much less top growth but deeper roots than cereal rye
• much less winter hardy than cereal rye
• can be difficult to kill
• can be a serious weed in small grains

57. Ralph “Junior” Upton
Springerton, Illinois
1,800 acres of no-till corn, beans and wheat &
annual ryegrass, cereal rye and hairy vetch cover crops
Problem Addressed
Difficult soil characteristics. Ralph “Junior” Upton farms
poorly drained land characterized by an impenetrable
layer, or “plow pan,” six to eight inches deep that crop
roots typically can’t grow through.
One day, in the mid-1980s, Upton got a magnified view of his soil’s limitations.
While tearing out a fence, Upton noticed plenty of moisture in the soil about
three feet down. Above it sat a compacted layer of soil through which no roots
were growing. Upton had a visible confirmation of why, during dry years, the
shallow-rooted crops dried up even though there was plenty of water stored in
the soil below.
“I began looking for a way to break up that plow pan
so my crops could get to the moisture they needed”

58. Learn from cover crop innovators
• Attend field days/host a field day
• Attend conferences
• Participate in internet forums

59. Field day at Steve Groff’s farm

61. What is innovation??
$ VS
This type of innovation
must be used on millions Home grown innovation
of acres to pay for R&D that fits your acres

62. Are you an early adopter?
adopt ≠ adapt
Are you a master adapter?
Farmers that make cover crops work tend to
be master adapters!

64. ~ 120 profiles since 2008

65. Read about CCs in on-line forums

66. Subject Replies Views
> 100 threads and > 200,000 views in 2011

67. Use precision planting

69. Bio-strip till
September 2008

70. Attempt #3
Radish planted on 30” rows using milo plates in mid-
August 2010

71. “A Wheat-Corn-Bean rotation with "tillage" done via RADISHES (!!)
into the wheat stubble every third year! All done with a single 60 ft
30" planter, RTK and one 60ft toolbar. Fertilizer efficiency is very good
with banding, split application and no fall losses.
I came away from there thinking I have seen the future of production
agriculture, at least in some areas.
Sorry to go on so long but this was a very interesting day.
The field of tillage radishes was incredible. The size of those things
does really seem to break up the soil at least as deep as many tillage
tools.
I think this may be the future for many folks and Joel, Steve, Ed and
others:
I am no longer a skeptic!”

73. A Wheat-Corn-Bean rotation with "tillage" done via RADISHES
(!!) into the wheat stubble every third year! All done with a
single 60 ft 30" planter, RTK and one 60ft toolbar. Fertilizer
efficiency is very good with banding, split application and no fall
8625 losses.
views!!
I came away from there thinking I have seen the future of
production agriculture, at least in some areas.
Sorry to go on so long but this was a very interesting day.
The field of tillage radishes was incredible. The size of those
things does really seem to break up the soil at least as deep as
many tillage tools.

75. Corn following cover crop experiment in 2011
Relative
Cover crop system
corn yield
Volunteer oats 79%
Radishes planted on 30” 99%
Radishes drilled on 7.5” 91%
Corn planted on radish rows

76. Keep good records
– Date of planting
– Seeding rates, drill settings…
– Take lots of photos!

77. My computer is about
to explode from cover
crop overload :->

78. Optimize fertility
• Inoculate legumes
• Inoculate non-legumes?
• Fertilize cover crops when
residual fertility is low

80. Do all legumes add N to the soil?
Soybean seeds often
contain >25% more N
than was fixed within
their nodules

81. 133 lbs of K/ac 52 lbs of Ca/ac
Hairy Vetch
3,260 lbs of DM/ac
141 lbs of N/ac
18 lbs of P/ac 18 lbs of Mg/ac

82. 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

83. Cereal rye inter-seeded with soybean for in-row
weed control at the Allison Farm
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)
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

85. Joe Rothermel’s new rig

86. Cover crops planted with insecticide
boxes while stripping

87. 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

88. Annual ryegrass variety trial at
the Allison farm November 2010
Bruiser, Bounty and KB Royal had the most top growth

89. > 36”

90. Early July 2009
Organic No-till research at
the Allison Farm
Soybeans drilled after rolling 5’ tall cereal rye

91. Early August 2009

92. Early November 2009
Plot yields ranged from 51.6 to 58.6 bu/ac
No significant differences between
NT, CT and bio-strip-till systems

93. November 2010
Significant foxtail pressure
but almost no broadleaf weeds
Plot yields ranged from 42-52 bu/ac

94. August 2011

95. November 2011
Have you considered this
option for combating
herbicide resistance!

96. Soybean health experiment – 6 locations across IL
November 2010
Mustard
Rapeseed incorporated
Canola pre-plant
Cereal rye
Cereal rye no-till
Soybeans no-till drilled into cereal rye
were the top yielder in 2011

97. Which potential benefits of CC
are most important to you?
Control
Erosion
Feed
livestock
Cover
Crops
Adapted from Magdoff and Weil (2004)

98. Good advice from Steve Groff…
TREAT
YOUR
COVER
CROPS
LIKE YOUR
CASH
CROPS!

99. Be realistic about
potential cover crop
challenges

100. Start planning today for next fall!
How will I seed the cover crop?
What will soil temperature and moisture conditions be like?
What weather extremes and field traffic must it tolerate?
Will it winterkill in my area?
Should it winterkill, to meet my goals?
What kind of regrowth can I expect?
How will I kill it and plant into it?
Will I have the time to make this work?
What’s my contingency plan—and risks—if the
cover crop doesn’t establish or doesn’t die on schedule?
Do I have the needed equipment and labor?