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| The first year I spread 50lbs of rye on cornstalks in the fall and never touched them till I showed up with the drill. Rye was 18-24" tall or so and it planted beautiful. After rolling the rye disappeared in no time and although I did have to spray a grass herbicide in season to finish off the rye but I didn't have to spray for broadleaves in non gmo beans and they were clean at harvest still. I terminated the day after planting and felt the cornstalks knocked over and shielded some of the rye from the burndown. Great stand and yield and did every acre the next year. Second year was a little later planting and everything looked good until one day at the tail end of corn planting the rye had suddenly shot up it seemed and was 4' tall and headed out and it looked like a terrible mess. Almost panicked but terminated and then notilled into it anyway and surprisingly it planted really nice. From in front the field it looked like a really dense crop but from the tractor cab looking down you could see ground all over, not enough rye to really keep the ground shaded completely. Due to a wet season I never did get the beans rolled and it looked like a mess all summer with dead rye sticking up out of the beans but by harvest it had almost completely collapsed and decomposed. They way it looked in the spring scared me off and I didn't spread any last fall but I think I wish I had at least did some. What I've seen around the area of others who broadcast rye it looks much more like the first year I did it. | |
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Rye cover crop
