Presentation by Andreas Schleicher Tackling the School Absenteeism Crisis 30 ...
Cover Crops in Missouri
1.
2. A lot of biomass-2-3
tons/acre
Winter Hardy
High Nitrogen Fixation-
100 plus lbs/acre
Wide window of
planting
August-mid October
March
Hard Seed, late
maturing
Problem When Wheat
is in the Rotation
3. Adapted from Gallagher, Penn State
2007 Hairy Vetch Corn Yield-0 N
Time lbs/acre %N N lbs/acre
Early (May 4) 1,400 3.82 55 113
Middle (May 15) 4,300 4.43 190 132
Late (May 31) 6,600 4.15 274 140
2008
Early (May 1) 3,204 2.49 80 92
Middle (May 14) 4,005 2.92 117 121
Late (May 29) 4,361 4.55 197 79
5. Large Biomass
High N fixation-80-
120 lbs/acre
Plant fall or early
spring
Not as winter hardy
Seedling Disease
problems
6.
7.
8. Plant August-
September
Early spring maturity
Not as much biomass
as Hairy Vetch or Peas
Can reseed
themselves
9.
10. Some New Varieties are 7-14 days earlier
Crimson Clover Days to 50% flowering Dry Matter yield
From February 1 lb/acre
Sunrise 51 1471
Robin 58 1587
Tibbee 67 1946
Chief 65 1921
Dixie 66 1872
Courtesy of Auburn University
14. Summer Cover Crops lb/acre %N lb N/acre
Sesbania 4051 1.97 79
Sunn Hemp 5097 1.87 83
Cowpea 3325 2.47 81
From MU Bradford Research Center 2012
15.
16. Each Species of
Legume has a
Different Species of
Bacteria
You must match them
together.
17.
18. Very Short Growing
season-60 days
Some Weed Control-
Allelopathy
Inexpensive Seed-
much like wheat or rye
Attract Beneficial
Insects
Many uses for
Vegetable production
Nutrient Cycling
19. Inexpensive Seed
Rye is very winter hardy
Spring Oats is not winter
hardy and will winter
kill-can be used to our
advantage
Rye tremendous dry
matter
Suppress weeds
Allelopathy or Blocking
Light
Good to mix with
legumes
20. Plant in Fall
Overwinter-most of
the time
Deep Roots-5-6 ft
Scavenge Nitrogen
Dense matt controls
weeds
Can become a weed!
Herbicide resistance
problem
26. Ohio State Loosen Soil-
University
Courtesy of Increase root
Steve Groff growth and
Open water
field
infiltration?
Tillage
Radish®
field
Soil compaction
decreased by >40%
30. K content ppm
Crop 0-3 inch 3-6 inch 6-12 inch
none 105 b 100 ab 109 a
Rye 97 b 89 c 96 ab
Crimson Clover 96 b 72 d 71 c
Hairy Vetch 127 a 108 a 86 bc
From Hargrove, 1986. Agronomy Journal
31. Rye and Radish can capture 100 or more
lbs/acre of N
Shoot Dry wt Root Dry Wt Shoot N Content Root N Content Shoot N Root N
After Corn lbs lbs % % lbs lbs
Radish 2165 2599 1.86 1.15 39.3 30
Rye 1757 2.39 37.9
After Soybean
Radish 3345 1989 3.93 3.12 132 62
Rye 2545 3.94 100
From Dean and Weil, 2009 Journal of Environmental Quality
68. 100
Corn germination when planted into rye cover crop
90
80
70
Plant count per 10 feet
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
chop roll chop roll chop roll chop roll
before cc destroyed same day cc destroyed 1 week after cc destroyed 2 weeks after cc destroyed
From MU Bradford Research Center, 212
90. Tillage Cereal
Time No Cover Radish Rye
%
Late Fall 96 0 0
Late March 99 3 1
Late April 75 37 0
From Lawley, et al, 2011. Agronomy Journal
94. Corn/Soybean
Corn/rye/Soybean/radish+oats
Corn/rye+legume/Soybean/polyculture including
legumes
Corn/Corn-plant early
Overseed oats+radish or oats+radish+crimson clover
Corn/Soybean/Wheat
Similar to above except after wheat follow a tropical
legume such as sunn hemp, cowpea, and then other
cover crops in the fall