Mike Starkey, a forward-looking Indiana farmer, changed the way he feeds nitrogen to crops - injecting the fertilizer at the plant roots rather than broadcasting it. That boosted growth and saved money. But he realized by studying the runoff from his field tiles that most of the nitrogen leached from the field once the soybean crop was harvested. He saw a big pulse after harvest and another the following spring, after thaw.
So he started using annual ryegrass as a cover crop. That has held the loose nitrogen in the field, scavenged in the annual ryegrass plants. (Mike Plumer, a U of Illinois agronomist, says that an annual ryegrass plant can sequester 800 pounds of N!) The results in lost nitrogen has been pronounced. So, too, has the the increase in crop productivity. He said:
“I ended up with a 7-bushel yield advantage with the corn behind the ryegrass (151 bushels per acre) vs.the corn that was planted into soybean stubble only (144 bushels per acre).”
Tags: all cover crops, Annual ryegrass, annual ryegrass as a cover crop, Mike Plumer, Mike Starkey, nitrogen-friendly cover crop help reduce the cost for fertilizer., sequesters available nitrogen
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