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SW Iowa | Good information. Wish I could make some of the meetings on covers.
I've been flying cereal rye over some of my standing corn for 5yrs now and then harvesting rye hay in the spring as I have a good market for it plus the equipment. We plant soybeans as soon as bales are hauled off, then spray when weed presence shows or at 12-15" height of beans. Only do one pass of chems saving $30/ac. Last year I VRT spread a 40/40 of P&K on my rye acres and saw an increase in the hay production, almost tripled it! Had 7.4/ac round bales (1400-1600lbs each). Beans didn't do well but didn't get the rain when needed.
But I wonder if this is the "right" thing to do compared to planting into standing rye. My ROI is really good even though some years the bean yields are off compared to non-cover crop beans. I see the poorer soils starting to "wake up" with better yields and fewer wet spots or sidehill seeps. Erosion is non existent.
So I'll keep reading what others are doing and hope I can use that info on my own farm. | |
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There is info on cover crop economics
