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Thinking of Corver Crops - some ???'s
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17821x
Posted 6/18/2010 14:48 (#1241912)
Subject: Thinking of Corver Crops - some ???'s


NE Iowa
I'm located in the hills of NE Iowa. No-till corn and beans. Couple fields of alfalfa mixed in for beef cow feed. Typically I'm the first guy in the neighbor hood to plant in the spring and also the first to combine in the fall. I farm some really steep hills and am considering cover crops for erosion protection. No-till and grassed waterways help a lot but still have seen some erosion from snowmelt or early spring rains. All my fields are planted on the contour and most are in 100' wide strips so aerial seeding into standing crops isn't physically possible. On a normal our year beans are combined by 1 Oct and corn by 15 Oct. Some of my thoughts / questions:

- Should I seed winter rye (grain) or oats. The rye will grow in the fall and spring but will it get too tall before planting? Oats will winterkill but would they get enough growth to get some erosion protection before they get frosted? Oats are certainly cheaper. Don't have enough of a growing season to try tillage radishes or hairy vetch or things like that.

- I do not own an no-till drill. Corn and beans are 30" rows. I have an old JD single disc conventional drill. I could also broadcast and use a rotary harrow to "incorporate". I think the JD drill would work in bean stubble but not sure. Drill into the soy stubble and broadcast / harrow into the cornstalks?

- Worried about rye getting to tall before planting. This year I planted corn around April 19th and like to spray with the planter. Hate to make a stand alone burndown pass to just kill the rye. I know the rye should be dead before you plant but when I plant early it takes 2 -3 weeks to come up. If I spray with the planter it would be good and dead before it comes up right?

- I've got some fields that have some "wet holes". Will cover crops make these better or worse? More trash to hold the moisture but something growing to suck it up. Which is the larger effect?

- I've looked at some studies that shows that corn planted into rye cover crops can reduce yield. Is that caused by the alleopathic effect of the rye or because the rye sucked moisture out of the ground? Most of the studies I've seen are from states that are on the dry side. In the spring we are typically not lacking for moisture.

Any thoughts or experiences would be appreciated.
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