I really like the idea of cover crops to not only help build the soil, which we need, but to also graze our cows. Were STOs and we have been COC for years and years, except we have been trying to work an alfalfa rotation in for a few years, mostly just to be able to graze the cows out on the stalks.  I can see a great untapped resource with using cover crops on our irrigated fields, to not only feed the cows, but to recycle the nutrients and help with the residue breakdown, which is our biggest hurdle growing notill irrigated COC here. Were not seeing the residue breakdown we were told we would, and getting through it in the spring has been challenging especially in years with limited moisture in the winter.   


But I feel to get the most good out of the CC, it needs to be put on in late august into the standing corn. But Ive heard mixed results trying to fly it on and the limited sunlight doesnt help. Id like to do some at sidedress time, especially with some clovers to help feed nitrogen to the growing corn, but right now the crop insurance limit is stopping me, "here" farming without insurance, especially for the STO, is like playing with fire, eventually you will get burned, it might be hail, or it might be drought, or sometimes, both, but it will happen if you farm long enough. So thats out for now.

I have this idea, and it might work well, but Im not that versed in what might happen to the corn itself if I do it.  My idea is to take a detasseling machine, mount a gandy type air box on it, go in about the 2nd or 3rd week of August in some 100-105ish day corn, with some tubes to distribute the seed and some fertilizer out right below the cutters, cut of the top foot or so of the plant to let some more light in and use that to help simulate seed to soil contact, and then use the last passes of the pivots to water it in. Then harvest it earlier than normal for the area, somewhere around 20 moisture, and let the CC take off, theres usually still a good 30 days or more of great growing days here.

Right off the top of my head I think I would use a mix of some crimson clover, turnips, oats and some rye/wheat/triticale. My goal is to provide plenty of nutrition for cows in the late trimester and through calving, while still recyling the nutrients and hopefully offset, or reduce the compaction of the cattle.

So for the "experts" would doing this injure the plant enough to hurt the yield at that stage? We try to be planting by the 20th of april, and this would probably be the last field grazed.