I was checking on my cover crop strip yesterday 9/29 and pleasantly surprised by the development after we finally caught a couple rains this week. 

This is a winter rye-tillage radish-turnip mix no-till drilled 8/11 into a compacted pasture that had been grazed down low. We had very little rain in August and early Sept.  

The plan is to let this grow another week or two (to get the radishes as large as possible to break up the compaction) then let the cows and spring calves rotationally graze it down. I'll then close it off for the winter, graze the rye in early spring to save a week or two of hay then strip till and plant grazing corn.  Here's a pic of the growth of the purple top turnips and tillage radishes about 48 days after drilling and limited rain. My cap was all I had on me for a size reference walking this strip.

Here's a pic from yesterday.

I'll add a pic of the cover crop strip from 9/26. Cows are currently in clean-up mode. I am pushing them to go around and clean up the corners, under wires and along the woods. They've been looking longingly at the cover crop strip in the foreground and the alfalfa/grass strip in the distance.

(IMG047 cover crop progress - winter rye-radish-turnip to be grazed oct and spring 092917 .jpg)

(IMG009 New rye-turnip-radish cover crop finally taking off after rain 092617.jpg)

IMG047 cover crop progress - winter rye-radish-turnip to be grazed oct and spring 092917 .jpg (100KB - 97 downloads)

IMG009 New rye-turnip-radish cover crop finally taking off after rain 092617.jpg (116KB - 86 downloads)