Tag Archives: burndown of cover crops

Midwest Adoption of Cover Crops Varies From State to State

Incentives, Open Minds and Industry Integrity Are Helping Growth

In states like Illinois, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Indiana, adoption of cover crops has spread like good news. Nothing beats seeing firsthand how cover crops can cut costs, build soil, reduce pollution and boost production.

“In some states, financial incentives appear to be stimulating adoption,” said Oregon cover crop seed producer, Nick Bowers. “For example, farmers in Indiana are receiving up to $32/acre to plant cover crops,” Bowers said. “Incentives lower the risk, plain and simple.”

But in other states, cover crop adoption is slow, even stunted. “Information – sometimes too little and sometimes misleading – can impede adoption,” Bowers added. Without good information and supportive, experienced crop consultants, the transition to healthy new practices can be prolonged.

Take annual ryegrass for example. In some states, it’s the “go to” cover crop because of its low cost, deep rooting and nitrogen recycling capabilities. In other states, however, annual ryegrass is still confused with cereal rye. Others shy away because of winterkill stories or how easy it is to kill in the spring. “How can annual ryegrass succeed so well over a dozen years in one state and be so easily dismissed in others,” Bowers wondered.

Bowers is among a handful of Oregon seed growers who have committed to educating a farming public eager to learn about cover crops. The Oregon growers also help to fund research and public education. www.ryegrasscovercrop.com .  They’re joined by crop consultants like Dan Towery and Mike Plumer, who have decades of experience as educators and crop consultants in Indiana and Illinois. Likewise, Midwest growers like Jamie Scott (IN) and Terry Taylor (IL) continue to present at conferences and host field days. “These people successfully demonstrate, year after year, that growing annual ryegrass is not difficult, but as with any crop, you have to pay attention to the management details,” Bowers said.

To propagate more use of annual ryegrass in states like Iowa, Ohio and Missouri, Bowers said that they’re working with select farmers who employ cover crops already. “Word of mouth has been the most reliable way to spread the word,” he said, “and nothing sells better than success stories.” From that exposure, certain soil scientists and crop consultants will become champions, and with that comes added encouragement from organizations like NRCS and county Soil and Water Conservation District staff.

Aside from educating the public and developing distribution points for seed in the Midwest, Oregon growers continue to develop hardy varieties of annual ryegrass to withstand harsh winters. “In this respect, we’re also trying to improve the consistent supply of those pure varieties…and not inadvertently have a batch in which less winter hardy seed is mixed.” Vast quantities of annual ryegrass is sent each year to southern states that don’t need winter hardy seed. “So, it’s important to make sure that the newer, hardy varieties aren’t grown in fields where less hardy crops were grown the previous year. In that way, the customer will know that what’s printed on the tag is exactly what they’re getting in the bag,” Bowers said.

“With the increases in cost of fuel and other inputs, cover crops will increasingly become an indispensable tool for profitable agriculture, and for a healthy environment,” Bowers said.

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Burndown of Annual Ryegrass – Details are Important

A Farm Journal article spells it out plainly and simply. Here’s a few paragraphs from that article. You can read the whole article by clicking here.

One of the cover crops that does double duty to achieve all of the above benefits is annual ryegrass. It comes with a caveat: using a cover crop such as annual ryegrass “involves a learning curve,” says Dan Towery, agronomy consultant with Ag Conservation Solutions in Lafayette, Ind. With an extensive and fibrous root structure, unlike other cover crops, annual ryegrass can be a challenge if you don’t do your homework and adjust to adverse weather conditions, he cautions. “You need to know the growth pattern of annual ryegrass and use the proper system to kill it.”

The biggest challenge in getting a good ryegrass kill is working with the weather, according to Mike Plumer, farmer and consultant with Conservation Agriculture near Creal Springs, Ill. Pay attention to the maturity stage of ryegrass and the ambient air temperature, Plumer advises.

Both consultants say annual ryegrass is ideally sprayed with glyphosate once the temperature gets above 50°F (when annual ryegrass actively starts growing) and before it reaches the first joint stage, or 7″ to 10″ tall. Ryegrass is easier to kill young, but there will be less mulch left on the ground. Larger plants (less than 16″) can be controlled with warmer expected temperatures, but wait too long to spray and the plants will be entering the boot stage, with the threat of seed production. Also, the plants are producing lignin in the stem at this stage, tying up nitrogen and making it unavailable to young plants, and residue decomposition is slowed.

Burndown of Annual Ryegrass

In the next month, all that lush annual ryegrass will become history…as you’ll have to terminate the cover crop to make way for soybean and corn seeds. But “history” is a relative term…in fact, the residue of the grass will quickly decompose, giving the precious nitrogen it has stored up to the new plants.

Here’s a website with specific data about the proper way to burndown annual ryegrass.

While the dead foliage provides nitrogen for the corn and soybean sprouts during critical times in the late spring and early summer months, the roots produced by the ryegrass will also play an important role, in two ways. First, as the roots decay, they’ll provide organic matter for the soil, and nutrition for the bacteria, microbes and earthworms that help create healthy soil. Secondly, and nearly as important: the channels created deep into the subsoil by the annual ryegrass roots allows corn roots to sink equally deep, thus giving the crop a summer-long supply of moisture and nutrients deeper in the soil profile.

Especially in dry years, annual ryegrass cover crops will give your corn harvest a huge boost. Growers regularly find that cover crop acreage outperforms no-till and conventional tillage acreage by as much as 100 bu/ac!

Dan Towery and Jamie Scott Present at OSU Conservation Tillage Conference

Earlier this week, more than 900 attendees at the annual Conservation Tillage and Technology Conference (Ada, OH) heard from more than 60 presenters on an exhaustive array of topic dealing with improving soil, reducing nutrient leaching and improving harvest yields.

Dan Towery and Jamie Scott presented in separate workshops in a day-long intensive on cover crops. Towery, together with Nick Bowers (an Oregon seed grower), Clem Bowman and Matt VanTilburg (no-till farmers) talked about managing annual ryegrass. While some still imagine this cover crop to be difficult to kill, VanTilburg dispelled that notion. According to Towery, VanTilburg said: “I never spray annual ryegrass (for a burndown in the spring) when the nighttime temperature falls below 50 degrees.” That’s a simple solution, Towery added, but not everybody will have ideal temperatures leading up to corn planting. For more information on management tips for controlling annual ryegrass, visit the annual ryegrass site by clicking here.

Jamie Scott, a Pierceton, IN farmer and cover crop innovator, was on a cover crop panel earlier in the afternoon and then presented later on his strategy for planting 35,000 acres of cover crops each year. Most of that acreage is in annual ryegrass, and all of it is aerial seeded by plane. Towery said that, based on comments by farmers in the northern corn belt, aerial seeding by plane or with high-clearance equipment is preferable simply because of the timing. It’s important to get good fall growth with annual ryegrass to give it the vigor needed to withstand winter temperatures. Planting after harvest is risky because early frost could then lead to the cover crop doing poorly.

 

Farm Progress article: Mike Plumer Offers Tips on Burndown of Annual Ryegrass

Tom Bechman (Farm Progress/Western Farmer-Stockman)
Feb 23, 2012

The following text came from an article. Click here to see the entire article.

The secret to bringing down annual ryegrass in a timely manner is understanding the plant and the chemicals you are applying to kill it, says Mike Plumer, a former University of Illinois agronomist who has researched cover crops for decades. Most people use glyphosate. To work glyphosate must be translocated in to the roots of the plant. These applications are often made during cool weather in the spring. Glyphosate doesn’t work as well when it is cool because it doesn’t translocate as well. This is not a place where you want to cut herbicide rates.

Plumer says that you can control the crop, and that you shouldn’t be afraid of it. Instead, determine that you are going to manage it and move forward. Plumer’s decades of experience with no-till and cover crops on his own farm in southern Illinois add to his credibility as someone who knows what they’re talking about when it comes to the benefits and challenges of cover crops.

The biggest tip Plumer offers is to pick the warmest day you can find that features lots of sunshine. Don’t spray before 8:30 t0 9 a.m. in the morning. The most crucial part is when you stop spraying annual ryegrass. He suggests that you shut down applying glyphosate by 1 p.m.

Click here to see the entire article.

Mike Plumer on Annual Ryegrass as a Cover Crop

“I’ve been going non-stop with cover crop meetings all winter,” Mike said in late January. From Missouri to the Wisconsin border and throughout Indiana and Illinois, he has come before a diverse audience to share current information about cover crops. Because of his 3-decades of experience with cover crop management, Mike is seen as an independent, respected resource.

“I’ve talked to more than 3300 people in the last three weeks,” he added, saying also that his work days are longer now than when he was working full time for the University of Illinois Extension.

It still surprises me,” Mike said, “but one of the biggest misconceptions still out there is the confusion between annual ryegrass and cereal rye.”  He points out that comparing the seed side-by-side makes the distinction easier. Annual ryegrass is much smaller and lighter: about 24  lbs/bushel versus 56 lbs/bu. for cereal rye. “Cereal rye grows more like wheat,” Mike added, “and some varieties can get to six feet tall if you let it go.” Annual ryegrass, on the other hand, grows only to about two feet, though he emphasized that burndown in the spring must occur before joint stage – when the plant is six to 12 inches. For more on the comparison of these cover crops, see: http://tinyurl.com/89rzvb4.

In addition to being a full time educator and crop consultant, Mike continues his field trial work on cover crops. With two Illinois farmers – both long-time cover crop advocates – he is monitoring test plots that will look at winter hardiness, burndown strategies and cover crop mixes. “In one case, I’m also testing annual ryegrass on its effectiveness against soybean cyst nematodes,” he said. In past years, Mike has reached the conclusion after researching literature and in field trials that annual ryegrass has the ability to suppress crop-destroying nematodes. An enzyme in annual ryegrass roots triggers a nematode egg hatch in the fall and spring   Upon hatching, nematodes find ryegrass roots are not a food source and they die, he theorized.

Beyond his work with individuals, Mike is also very active with local, regional and national organizations. His work has helped the NRCS to fully appreciate the benefits of cover crops, and the cost-sharing efforts in place are attracting thousands of newcomers to cover cropping practices annually. Likewise, he has worked with the EPA on use of cover crops to manage nutrients on farmland, a national effort to reduce hypoxia in watersheds, rivers and the Gulf of Mexico. “There’s new cooperation between regulatory, ag-related, and environmental groups,” he said. In that respect, besides NRCS and EPA, he has worked closely with Soil and Water Conservation districts, the American Farmland Trust, the Conservation Technology Information Center, and many agriculture organizations and businesses.