The Oregon Ryegrass Commission has published three helpful new flyers to aid in your selection and management of annual ryegrass as a cover crop.
1. Selection of Annual Ryegrass
2. 2014 Annual Ryegrass Management Guide – “Quick” 2-pager
3. 2013 Annual Ryegrass Management Guide – Comprehensive 4-pager
Please let us know if these could use further information or clarification.
All of these and more are available on the Annual Ryegrass Cover Crop website.
The Indiana-based Conservation Cropping Systems Initiative was awarded $750,000 (Conservation Innovation Grant) to further quantify the value of cover crops – including annual ryegrass – in the Midwest over the next 3 years. The money has already been used to hire a project director (Lisa Holscher) and line out highly-visible projects to help explain and educate regional farmers.
The project will include 12 farms in Indiana, each of whom is contributing to the project’s budget. Each farmer chosen already has shown experience with on-farm re search, conservation measures, hosting field days and making public presentations. Each will receive mentoring and technical advice as part of their investment. Several those chosen are long-term cover crop innovators (Dan DeSutter, Jamie Scott, Cameron Mills) and they’ll become part of the advisory team for teaching.
According to a news release on the project: The majority of the sites compare no-till/strip-till only to no-till/strip-till with cover crops. Other comparisons include: strip-till with cover crops vs. no-till with cover crops; reduced tillage with cover crops vs strip-till with cover crops; and no-till with single-species cover crop vs. no-till with a cover crop mix. More specifically, soil fertility, soil moisture, soil nitrate, soil temperature, cover crop biomass, and some of the new soil health tests will be done. Test results will be compiled and analyzed by Purdue University.
Partnering with CCIS in the project: Indiana Corn Growers Association, Indiana Soybean Alliance, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Indiana State Department of Agriculture, and the Purdue Cooperative Extension.
Soil health is the main focus at Wenning Farms, in the rolling hills and tight clay soils of southeastern Indiana. The family operates more than 600 acres in a corn/soybean rotation.
Roger Wenning, the son of the founder of the farm, talks here in a video about his practice of rigorous on-farm research and field trials. His efforts paid off last year with good production even in the drought. His efforts also netted Roger the annual Conservation Award from the American Soybean Association.
Roger cover crops his entire acreage, has tried many different cover crops, and still makes a lot of use with annual ryegrass, because of its being a deep-rooting plant that sequesters N for the following corn plants.
Long time Illinois farmer Sonny Snyder learned this year that cover crops are a money saver, a soil saver and, with success, a revenue enhancer…although he’s had to spend some time learning new management techniques.
Click here for the story. Here’s an excerpt:
After more than 50 years of farming, Sonny Snyder last fall planted a crop he never intended to harvest.
At first mention, the idea seems an odd use of time and money. Yet, a growing number of corn and soybean farmers like Snyder are trying it throughout the state to improve their soils.
Farmers call them cover crops, and the re-born concept seems one of the hottest topics in the agriculture industry, said Russ Higgins, commercial agriculture educator with University of Illinois Extension and a representative of the Midwest Cover Crops Council.
Cover crops, such as radishes and ryegrass, are a secondary crop planted in the fall to protect and improve soil conditions during the period of time when crops normally wouldn’t grow, he said. Illinois farm fields, unless planted to harvestable crops like winter wheat or multiple seasons of alfalfa hay, generally rest unused in a six- to seven-month window of cool or cold weather.
“For a long time, I’ve been concerned about taking our crop off our fields and there’s six months before there’s anything back on it,” said Snyder, who farms near Yates City with his son Scott.
Studying the retention of inorganic N after last year’s drought was revealing. An Illinois team of researchers determined from 151 samples statewide that an average equivalent of 140 lb of N per acre was left over from 2012! (More than half was resident in the top foot of soil while the rest was in the second foot.)
Click here to read the whole article in No-Till Farmer.
The study also looked at how much of that N was being lost this spring and found that between 20 – 50 lb/ac had been lost. The researchers speculate that some may be below the two-foot depth but said that with spring rains, drain tiles were showing dramatic increases of nitrates.
What the article didn’t mention is that annual ryegrass and other cover crops are superb crops to soak up that N available in the soil.
For more information about annual ryegrass, click here.
Now’s the Time to Begin to Take Out Your Annual Ryegrass Cover Crop
1. Timing is important. Late March – Mid April, depending on Midwest location
a. Burndown when the plant is 6 – 12”, before 1st node develops
b. Allow 5 – 7 days after annual ryegrass has begun to actively grow before spraying
2. Temperature is crucial. Should be above 60° F
a. Spray on a sunny day if possible
b. Wait a few days if nighttime temps dip below 38°F
c. Soil temperature should be above 45°F
d. Stop spraying about 4 hours before sunset to allow for max. translocation within the plant.
3. Coverage. Be thorough, use medium spray droplet and moderate pressure
a. Use flat fan nozzles, at 30 – 40 psi
b. Don’t use air induction nozzles that produce a course droplet size.
4. Primary application. One application of glyphosate may be enough for burndown
a. However, plan for two applications, using herbicide with a different mode of action
b. Scout the fields afterwards to ensure annual ryegrass is dead (it may look brown but can grow back)
c. Glyphosate use. Apply at 1.25 – 1.5 lb. a.e./a
d. Add ammonium sulfate and a surfactant
e. Adjust pH and follow mixing directions on the label carefully
f. When using additives, mix them first for 3 – 5 minutes in a full tank of water, before adding the glyphosate; water should be free of clay particles.
5. Precautions, and other herbicides to use when planting corn
a. Never mix atrazine or Callisto with glyphosate (ryegrass control will diminish)
b. Adding 1lb a.e./a Princep (simazine) improves weed control (not in sandy soil)
c. Use of Balance Pro, Prowl H2O, Resolve Q or Basis Blend, 2,4-D, Axiom at full label rate for residual weed control.
6. Use of other herbicides when planting soybeans
a. After beans emerge, annual ryegrass escapes can be controlled with full rates of SelectMax, Poast Plus or Fusilade DX.
b. Use fertilizer, surfactant, crop oil as label-directed. Less effective in cold temps.
A recent article by Farm Journal writer Darrel Smith, talked about a nitrogen study with different cover crops, and the importance in managing the burn down so as to maximize nitrogen uptake by corn and beans.
Farm Progress worked with Dan Towery and Ken Ferrie on the project. The following paragraphs are from the article. To read the entire article, click above on the Farm Journal highlight.
“Annual ryegrass is a nitrogen scavenger, and has a relatively low C/N ratio—as low as 17/1 if you burn it down early,” Towery says. “Because the annual ryegrass was planted into wheat stubble, it may not have taken up much nitrogen because there wasn’t much in the soil to begin with—possibly less than 20 lb. per acre. I’ve seen annual ryegrass take up much more nitrogen than that—90 lb. to 120 lb. per acre, depending on field history.
“The low C/N ratio of annual ryegrass means that typically 50% to 75% of that nitrogen becomes available to corn plants six to 10 weeks after it is killed in the spring—in late June or early July,” Towery continues. “Often, corn fields following an annual ryegrass cover will be dark green, or even almost black in July. That has to be from the nitrogen mineralized from the annual ryegrass, and the absence of a carbon penalty, resulting from the crop’s low C/N ratio.
Check out this great article in the recent edition of Furrow, published by John Deere Company.
Now’s the Time to Begin to Take Out Your Annual Ryegrass Cover Crop
1. Timing is important. Late March – Mid April, depending on Midwest location
a. Burndown when the plant is 6 – 12”, before 1st node develops
b. Allow 5 – 7 days after annual ryegrass has begun to actively grow before spraying
2. Temperature is crucial. Should be above 60° F
a. Spray on a sunny day if possible
b. Wait a few days if nighttime temps dip below 38°F
c. Soil temperature should be above 45°F
d. Stop spraying about 4 hours before sunset to allow for max. translocation within the plant.
3. Coverage. Be thorough, use medium spray droplet and moderate pressure
a. Use flat fan nozzles, at 30 – 40 psi
b. Don’t use air induction nozzles that produce a course droplet size.
4. Primary application. One application of glyphosate may be enough for burndown
a. However, plan for two applications, using herbicide with a different mode of action
b. Scout the fields afterwards to ensure annual ryegrass is dead (it may look brown but can grow back)
c. Glyphosate use. Apply at 1.25 – 1.5 lb. a.e./a
d. Add ammonium sulfate and a surfactant
e. Adjust pH and follow mixing directions on the label carefully
f. When using additives, mix them first for 3 – 5 minutes in a full tank of water, before adding the glyphosate; water should be free of clay particles.
5. Precautions, and other herbicides to use when planting corn
a. Never mix atrazine or Callisto with glyphosate (ryegrass control will diminish)
b. Adding 1lb a.e./a Princep (simazine) improves weed control (not in sandy soil)
c. Use of Balance Pro, Prowl H2O, Resolve Q or Basis Blend, 2,4-D, Axiom at full label rate for residual weed control.
6. Use of other herbicides when planting soybeans
a. After beans emerge, annual ryegrass escapes can be controlled with full rates of SelectMax, Poast Plus or Fusilade DX.
b. Use fertilizer, surfactant, crop oil as label-directed. Less effective in cold temps.
I’ve heard from some producers that, even after killing their annual ryegrass cover crop successfully in the spring, some new plants will come up in the field later that same year or the following year. Here’s what I’ve learned about that:
1. Annual ryegrass seed has the potential to remain viable (latent) in the ground from 3 – 5 years; 3 years in a no-till field and up to 5 in conventional tillage.
2. Some small percentage of seed may not germinate in the same year it is planted. That latent seed may germinate the following year.
3.. Options for this situation: if you don’t want the annual ryegrass, spray it out with glyphosate. But if the “volunteer” seed is prolific enough, you might get a “free” crop of annual ryegrass for the next cover crop season. Or, you can drill or broadcast more seed on top of it.