ak47 - 1/19/2019 15:05
I guess I’m not a firm believer of cover crops this last year was a prime example was pretty dry this spring and the fall before the people that planted their covers in wheat stubble barely came up from lack of rain but had just enough growth to turn out cows on last winter but not much.
Then harvest time the had planted corn into the cover crop I think it was radishes and sorghum and some other stuff their corn was only avg about 15-35 bushels. Our corn on wheat stubble and bean stubble was avg 150-180 bpa. How in the world do you make that work. I guess I can’t say I’d never do it maybe it takes a environment where it needs lots of rain to work good like this fall and winter. But in a dry spell here it looks like a disaster
so did the covers consume the water to keep the corn yields down? we can blame the covers for the corn yields but what if they would have changed something with the covers? terminate sooner to save the cash crop? different covers that didn't use water?
covers with cattle pay very quickly and easily vs old grass or especially feed lot cows. huge cash flow advantage in our area.
if your farming and living year to year covers working or not is your least concern.
its easy to blame the practice on the hurt yield. but more then likely it was a management that caused it. rye ahead of beans is very easy to do and everyone says its works great. but sometimes the rye can take to much moisture and some cereals can actually make dry soil tight.
if the guys stick with it for some time to get it figured out the long term goals are there and the long term ROI is for sure there.
covers are like fertility. very local as to how to make a program work. any fertilizer recommendation coming from anyone out of your area has to be taken with a grain of salt. same with covers. need to have a couple failures along the way and that's ok.
Edited by easymoney 1/19/2019 16:11
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Cover Crop ROI I have yet to see discussed.
