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SW Minnesota | I'm in SW Minnesota and I'm planning on trying some cereal rye this fall as a cover crop (and possibly letting it grow to grain harvest next year). Plan to seed it within the next week or so after I've harvested some soybeans (haven't started yet). Going to seed around 1-1/2 bushels/acre.
Now my questions: If the stand makes it thru winter in good shape, I plan to leave it grow to maturity and harvest it for grain next summer. That way I would have some more seed for the following year. If I plan to do this, do I need to fertilize it or will it scavenge enough out of the soil to support healthy grain development? If it needs to be fertilized, when is the best time to do this? And if I harvest it for grain, what cover crop advantages will I lose?
I realize that getting into cover crops is a learning process and what works somewhere else may not be the best thing for here. Last year I started seeding red clover with some of my oats at the same time I planted the oats. It worked OK last year but didn't get a lot of growth since it stayed dry after oat harvest. I did the same thing on some of my oats this year and got nice growth out of it since we had some late summer rains. I just recently cut it (along with a nice amount of volunteer oats growth) and will have this round baled when it gets dry enough. I also seeded another oat field with berseem clover at planting time this spring. There is a fair amount of growth on this, but not nearly as thick as the red clover. Will evaluate this more later this fall but may not do this type of clover again. | |
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Questions about seeding cereal rye this fall
