This is a slightly modified version of a presentation that I shared at The Organic Conference in La Crosse, WI

1. Cover Crop Innovation
on Organic Farms
Dr. Joel Gruver
WIU – Agriculture
j-gruver@wiu.edu

2. Haphazard
cover cropping

3. What am I
supposed to do
now?

4. Very common question received
by CC seed vendors in early fall
“What cover
crop should I
plant ???”

5. Well… what do you
want your cover
crops to do for you?

6. Cover crops can do many things!
Cover
Crops
Adapted from Magdoff and Weil (2004)

7. Good planning increases the likelihood of positive effects
and reduces the likelihood of negative effects.
Host
pests
Tie up N
? ?
Become
a weed
Interfere w/
equipment
performance
Suppress
crop growth
Cover
Crops Dry out soil
Prevent excessively
soil
Add cost drying
Increase
management
Adapted from Magdoff and Weil (2004)

8. Match CC objectives with species
Grazing
GRAZING = #1 way to make cover crops pay!
brassicas, clovers, small grains, a. ryegrass, sorghum-sudan
Nutrient scavenging/cycling
brassicas, small grains, annual ryegrass
Bio-drilling
brassicas, sugarbeet, sunflower,
sorghum-sudan sweet clover, alfalfa
N-fixation
clovers, vetches, lentil, winter pea, chickling vetch, sun hemp, cowpea,
soybean
Bio-activation/fumigation
brassicas, sorghum-sudan, sun hemp, sesame
Weed suppression
brassicas, sorghum-sudan, cereal rye, buckwheat

9. Forage kale Oats, turnips, annual ryegrass and wheat
Oats, turnips and cereal rye Mystery brassica

10. Have you used any forage brassicas
as cover crops?
Hunter

11. Franzluebbers AJ and JA Stuedemann. 2008.
Soil physical responses to cattle grazing cover
crops under conventional and no tillage in the
Southern Piedmont USA.
Soil and Tillage Research 100, 141-153.
Cover crops (winter or summer) can provide high-
quality forage and increase economic return and
farm diversity, but some farmers have been
reluctant to take this advantage due to perceived
“compaction” caused by animal trampling.
Grazing of cover crops can compact soil, but
not to the detrimental levels often perceived.

12. Cover crops are not the missing puzzle piece(s)
in your current crop rotation(s)!
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/tcoa/files/breakcrops_orgagr.pdf

13. Overview of book contents
• Problems and opportunities for over 500 crop
sequences
• Characteristics of more than 60 crops and 70 weeds
• Crop diseases hosted by over 80 weed species
• Modes of transmission for 250 diseases of 24 crops
• Thirteen sample four- and five-year vegetable and
grain crop rotations Managing Crop Rotation Chart
with key tasks & steps
•Sample worksheets and calculations
• Step-by-step procedure for determining crop rotation
plans

14. Crop rotations
should evolve
not revolve

15. Start planning today!
• Anticipate planting windows
• Match objectives with species
• Confirm seed availability
• Make sure seeding equipment is ready
• Identify realistic termination methods
• Allocate labor
• Develop contingency plans

17. Crop
planted
on 5/15
and
harvested
on 9/1

18. When can you plant CCs?
• Dormant seeding early or late winter
• Frost seeding
• In the spring
• When planting summer crops
• Prevent plant scenarios
• At last cultivation
• After small grains
• After vegetables
• After seed corn or silage corn
• Aerial or high clearance seeding into standing crops in
late summer/early fall
• After long season crops

20. What is this CC?
Phacelia

22. Phacelia & Radish
Planted first week of September

23. Phacelia overseeded into standing
soybeans in early September
Phacelia does not like shade

24. Dormant seeding
demo plot

25. http://calshort-lamp.cit.cornell.edu/bjorkman/covercrops/spring-mustard.php

26. Klaas and Mary Martens,
organic innovators in
Central NY State, are
reporting excellent results
with frost-seeded
confectionary mustard
ahead of dry beans

27. Mustard variety trial at the Allison farm in early June 2011
Pacific Gold Ida Gold
Slower to mature Faster to mature
More biomass Less biomass

28. Mustards are very responsive to N

29. Mustards are easy to kill with tillage

30. Maceration is key for bio-fumigation effects

31. JD 730 Air-Disk drill on Jack Erisman’s farm in Pana, IL
Jack uses this rig to drill soybeans on 6" rows (~ 280,000/ac)
while also dropping about 2 bushel of rye and some
micronutrients

32. Planted before heavy rain Planted after heavy rain

33. Small amount of foxtail… almost no broadleaves
~ 20 bushels more yield

34. Lots of weeds but very few
towering monsters of maternity :->

35. Terminating spring planted oats with a soil finisher
~ 3 weeks before planting corn

36. Are you equipped to handle a situation like this?

37. 10’ Howard Rotavator tilling ~ 3” deep with C blades

38. Complete kill after 1 pass
and 2 days of sun

39. Typical weather in spring 2009-2011 :-<

40. How would you prepare this field for planting corn?
Red Clover/Alfalfa/Orchardgrass

41. Mowing and allowing a half day of drying made a large difference in
the power required to incorporate with a rotavator

42. Moldboard plowing can be the best option

43. Soybeans no-tilled drilled in a pasture on Jack Erisman’s farm

44. Performance over Price
• Buy CC seed on value not price
Cover crop seed price survey from 2010 ($/lb)
Vendor Cereal rye Annual Hairy vetch Medium red
ryegrass clover
WI 0.188 0.52 (0.69) 1.60 (1.98) 1.22 (1.62)
IL1 0.147 (0.179) 0.47 (0.63) 1.42 (1.65)
MN 0.153 (0.171) 0.50 (0.56) 1.70 (1.90) 1.66 (1.84)
NE1 0.157 (0.179) 0.55 (0.65) 2.10 (2.50) 1.65 (1.95)
IL2 (0.213) (0.75) (2.20) (2.60)
IL3 0.188 (0.214) (0.70)
MO 0.197 0.46 1.47 1.21
IL4 (0.20) (0.60) (1.80) (1.75)
IA (0.195) (0.62) (2.00) 2.00
IN (0.239) (0.75) (2.20)
(IL farmer) 0.125 0.48 1.05

45. Cheapest CC seed available is
normally VNS – variety not stated
Do you know the difference
between “variety name” and
“brand name”?
How important is uniform seed
size and vigor to you?

46. Reduce Risk
• Enroll in programs that pay you to plant CCs
• Use time tested CC methods
• Use more than one method of planting CCs
• Plant mixtures/cocktails
• Grow some crops e.g. small grains,
vegetables, corn silage, shorter season
hybrids/varieties that are harvested early
• Irrigate

47. Traditional cover cropping in the Midwest
The
most tried and true
cover cropping system
in the Midwest region
Frost seeded red
clover

48. Drilling CC after small grain harvest

49. There are many options other than drilling

50. Magness Farm in Maryland

52. Annual ryegrass & radishes aerial
seeded into soybeans at leaf drop.
Aerial seeding is fast and relatively cheap
but more sensitive to weather

53. Effective multi-tasking or cover crop chaos???

55. http://greencoverseed.com/

56. cereal rye
crimson clover
hairy vetch

57. crimson clover
annual ryegrass

58. Aerial seeded
annual ryegrass
turnips

59. Beware of CC hype!
• Cover crops are not a silver bullet solution
to any problem

60. The rock
star of
cover
crops!!!

61. With lots of space, moisture, fertility and time to
grow, individual radishes can get huge!
but a good stand of 1” radishes
will probably do more for your soil!

62. This is plenty big!!

63. #1 attribute may
be that they grow
very rapidly in
the fall and then
winterkill

64. Crop root density as affected by previous cover crop
Chen and Weil (2006)

65. Roots at ~ 40”
after 45 days

66. Soon to be released !

67. Radishes are not the only good bio-driller!!
• much less top growth but deeper roots than cereal rye
• much less winter hardy than cereal rye
• can be difficult to kill with tillage
• can be a serious weed in small grains

68. Learn from cover crop innovators
• Attend field days/host a field day
• Attend conferences
• Participate in internet forums

69. Field day at Steve Groff’s farm

70. Field day at Steve Groff’s farm

72. ~ 120 profiles including ~ 20 organic farmers since 2008

73. Read about CCs in on-line forums

74. Subject Replies Views
> 50 threads and > 200,000 views in 2 months

75. Use precision planting

77. Planter Plate
White 60-cell sugar beet
Deere small sugar beet 4/64”
Case-IH sugar beet
Kinze 2000 and 3000 series small 60-cell milo
Kinze Edge Vac w/ e-sets 60-cell small sugar beet 1/16”
Monosem 6020 plate; vacuum set to 15

78. Our first
attempt at
bio-strip till
September 2008

79. September 2009 Attempt #2

80. Tillage radish on 30” rows with oats on 7.5” rows
November 2009

81. Attempt #3
Planting on
30” rows using
milo plates in
mid-August 2010

82. Cultivating/ridging
radishes in
October 2010

83. Ridges with
dead radishes in
spring 2011

84. Planting popcorn
on ridges
in May 2011

85. Planted
beautifully
but we decided to
replant after a
month of
relentless rain :-<

86. Radishes on 30” rows with volunteer oats in fall 2010

87. Radishes on 30” rows with volunteer oats in fall 2010
Spring 2011

88. Corn following cover crop experiment
Relative
Cover crop system
corn yield
Volunteer oats 79%
Radishes planted on 30” 99%
Radishes drilled on 7.5” 91%

89. Attempt #4
October 2011

90. December 2011

91. Keep good records
– Date of planting
– Seeding rates, drill settings…
– Take lots of photos!

92. My computer is about
to explode from cover
crop overload :->

93. Optimize fertility
• Always inoculate legumes
• Inoculate non-legumes?
• Fertilize cover crops when
residual fertility is low

95. 133 lbs of K/ac 52 lbs of Ca/ac
Hairy Vetch
3,260 lbs of DM/ac
141 lbs of N/ac
18 lbs of P/ac 18 lbs of Mg/ac

96. Slurry seeding cover crops in Michigan

98. Learn from research
On-farm research
• Leave check strips - replicate if possible
• Work with universities/NRCS
Research station trials
• Make suggestions
• Pay attention to results

99. Cereal rye inter-seeded with soybean for
in-row weed control at the Allison Farm
No significant differences in yield between 20&40 lbs/a
of rye in row vs. 60 lbs broadcast vs. control
(all trt means > 40 bu/a)
Cereal rye and several other CC species that require
vernalization will be planted over soybeans rows
using the insecticide boxes on our planter in 2012

100. Cover crops planted with
insecticide boxes while stripping

101. Joe Rothermel’s new rig

102. Wheat + radish trial at the Allison farm
November 2010
3 lb/a = 2 lb/a = 1 lb/a > 0 lb/c
~ 2.5 bu/a yield boost

103. Annual ryegrass variety trial
at the Allison farm
November 2010
Bruiser, Bounty and KB Royal had the most top growth

104. > 36”

105. ARG is tough to kill
mechanically

106. Organic No-till research
at the Allison Farm
Early July 2009

107. Early August 2009

108. Early November 2009
Plot yields ranged from 51.6 to 58.6 bu/ac
No significant differences between systems

109. November 2010
Significant foxtail pressure
but almost no broadleaf weeds
Plot yields ranged from 42-52 bu/ac

110. Early June 2011
We planted before
rolling in one set of
plots

111. 15’ wide roller built by a local farmer

112. Mid-June 2011

113. Early July 2011

114. Our conventional-till beans
are looking good, right?
Unfortunately, there were lots of in-row weeds :-<

115. August 2011

116. November 2011
No-till bean plots averaged 43 bu/a
~ 10 bu/a higher than then next
highest treatment in this
experiment

117. Soybean health experiment – 6 locations across IL
November 2010
Mustard
Rapeseed incorporated
Canola pre-plant
Cereal rye
Cereal rye no-till

118. Christmas Day 2011
Good stand of Plans for 2012
cereal rye
(1.5 bu/a drilled in Compare 1 vs. 2
early October) pass planting,
200K vs. 300K,
all no-till

119. Wow...cover crops
are not idiot-proof!
Cover crops generally require more management
than manure or purchased nutrient amendments

120. Good advice from Steve Groff…
TREAT
YOUR
COVER
CROPS
LIKE YOUR
CASH
CROPS!