The Midwest Cover Crop Council’s conference last week - where 120 people from 13 states came to talk about cover crops - is the latest indication of the growing excitement in reducing conventional tillage in favor of no-till and cover crops. Cover crops save money (in fact, there are financial incentives available) and boost crop [...]
Continue reading about Bumper Crop of New Interest in Cover Crops - including Annual Ryegrass
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 [...]
Continue reading about Annual Ryegrass Boosts Production Because of Nitrogen Kick
Most of the farmers I’ve met this week at the Pennsylvania No-Till training are in the dairy business, even though some are getting out due to the low price of milk the last couple years. Some are putting in row crops, which would change a lot of management practices.
According to folks from Penn State, the [...]
Continue reading about Pennsylvania No-Till Farmers Consider Cover Crops
Cover crops continue to gain in popularity, as I saw first-hand at the National No-Till Conference in Des Moines last week. Hundreds stopped by the Ryegrass Commission booth, to ask questions and share info about their experience.
One of the most gratifying things about people’s comments about annual ryegrass: 1) that growers from farther afield are [...]
Continue reading about The Buzz at the Recent National No-Till Conference
Annual ryegrass was featured in a cover story in this week’s Indiana Prairie Farmer. The story was essentially about the new Indiana Cover Cropping Systems Initiative, a three year project funded by the following partners:
Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)
Indiana State Dept. of Ag
Indiana Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts
The project - which grew out [...]
Continue reading about Indiana Prairie Farmer Article on Cover Cropping System Initiative
The late harvest, combined with a wet fall, has made conventional tillage more difficult. Those risking tillage would probably add to compaction issues. But late harvest has also hampered planting cover crops this year. Here are a couple of things to consider, either for later this year or next summer.
1. Dormant seeding of annual ryegrass [...]
Continue reading about Wet Weather Reduces Tillage - Farmers Consider No-Till with Annual Ryegrass
