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joeatdawn

Posted 6/29/2015 17:25 (#4652781)
Subject: Organic Beans in Cereal Rye

Thought some of you into cover crops would find this interesting.

These images show planting organic soybeans into cereal rye a couple weeks ago (I know the exact date because it was two days before my daughter was born) in central Iowa.

The planter was outfitted with the ZRX Cover Crop Roller.

Cereal Rye was planted at a very high rate. I wonder how the rate affects the ability to mechanically kill it by making the stems thinner. Notice how nice the kill is that you can get.

Organic growers typically want to see zero soil showing so we raised the cleaning disks all the way up. The mat of residue is so thick you have to set the planter much deeper to compensate for it.

The farmer who arranged this setup, Brent, was confident the beans could emerge through the 6" thick mat of residue.

The photos of the emerged crop are from about 2 weeks after planting.

I will be checking back with him to see how effective the mat of residue is at preventing weed growth throughout the summer.

I am excited about the organic business because because of the growth in the market, and the relatively high margins if you can figure out how to do it in a less labor intensive way.

Edited by joeatdawn 6/29/2015 17:29