| Charloz24 - 8/12/2026 06:15
I have some question about cereal rye as cover crop, because did try it last year and it was not successfull.
Here is what I did:
Last year was VERY dry here in july/august. Rain came back the fist week on september (1.5 inch), but on the dry side after.
In my soybean fields, in the last week of august when leaves started to turn yellow , I seeded with drone oats and also turnips and got good green fields after soybeans harvest.
HOWEVER, in my corn field I tried cereal rye drone seeded @ 70lbs/acre in the last week of september into standing corn between 2 rain event ( about 1/3 inch each event).
(October rain was normal 4.5 inch for the month)
Corn was harvested october 25th
In the spring, that corn field have some cereal rye growing, but not really thick and about none on the combine tracks.
So that my question is was it just a bad year for my rye experiment?
Should I have seeded sooner so the rye could be stronger VS combine tire, or should I have seeded later (just before havesting maybe)
Average first frost here is october 10th.
Forgot to mention Im in a light strip till corn soybean rotation. By light strip till I mean just a pass of strip freshener in the spring.
Thanks in advance
So if you have a wide harrow, maybe you could do that soon after corn harvest to get more of the c. rye seed better covered and more seed to soil contact.
For the most part, I no-till drill c. rye into cornstalks, which works consistently, but I'm a lot farther South of you to give me that opportunity, but after beans I have had some c. rye broadcast seeded with the fertilizer after harvest then have lightly harrowed that in and have got good results. |
Cover crops question (cereal rye)
