Review the Aug. 5/15 post, titled "Cover Crop"for details of the seeded cover crop.
What did we learn. First, with only one year experience nothing can be said with any certainty.
---Our attempt to include a legume for N was, in my mind, a failure. Neither the peas, vetch, or clover grew to the extent that N would be increased for the following crop. The peas were small, podded quickly, developed seed before any of the other cover crop cultivars were ready to make their contribution, thus using all the N they produced. The vetch and clover are slow growing and didn't develop any significant biomass, and this would limit their production of N.
---The brassica's (mustard, radishes, cabbage did well. Two varieties, Annaconda and Nemaflex, bolted quickly and seeded out. They did develop good tubers. The third variety, Graza, stayed green all season without bolting and developed good tubers. The Graza grew close to the ground, where the other two grew more vertical. The mustard did OK, but didn't make any big statement for cover. The cabbage grew good leaf cover.
---The grains (winter triticale, millet) were a waste, and may be a problem. The millet cooked out quick, and only in the dips did it have enough moisture to make a head. The winter triticale may become a problem in the fall wheat that was seeded. We didn't see any cultivars growing, so, did it not germinate? We'll see next June.
---The cover crop took 3" of our profile moisture. What will that mean for 2016 winter wheat? Skeptics are sure they know! I'm not so sure. Will the boring of the brassica's allow for better water infiltration with frozen ground this winter? Those tubers, once they die, shrink rather quickly, leaving a big hole that will probably extend below the frost line. My hope is that we will lose no water from runoff as we did in Feb. of 2014. We have seeded the winter wheat, but it won't grow until we get more moisture this fall or winter. We are getting some of our chem fallow emerged next to the cover crop, but I think we will still be able to make a reasonable guess of the yield hit between the two areas next July. I can see these hole drillers need to be used timely, and with purpose, because of their ability to move water both directions in the soil profile.
---The experience showed that cover crop cultivars need to be tailored for the following cash crop, and timing of seeding tailored to give the desired results (this is as advertised). Two examples: One, -don't seed small grain cultivars in a cover mix in front of a cash grain crop. With small grains being our bread and butter, we don't need this cultivar for crop diversity, and it is not needed to scavenge N or P for water quality as they do in the midwest or east. Second, -vetches need to be seeded in late summer or early fall to establish themselves for early spring growth, to give desired results. How do we make this work?? This is the fourth time I have attempted growing N, and the results are not impressive. We'll try again next year. I am a long way from exhausting the potential methods.
---We are thinking of resurrecting our 1980 Crustbuster Soybean Drill with it's leading edge double disc openers to inter-seed covers with the cash crop, and possibly seed our cover crop areas. It's light, can be pulled fast, and will place seed shallow. It will however degrade our residue mat. My thought is too seed a light rate of (either/and/or) vetch, clover, Graza radish to grow with our spring small grain cash crops. The vetch, and clover are slow developing, making them non competitive with the cash crop. The Graza will potentially compete for sunlight so needs to be sparse. My hope would be that it grows fast enough to grow a long slender tuber before we hit it with our broadleaf chemical application in the cash crop. I think the clover will survive. I'm not sure about the vetch. If some of these cultivars do survive, it will leave a live root system in the ground to feed the biological herd and help soil quality after the cash crop matures. We aren't going to bet the farm on this, so it will only be a few acres in these trials.
No comments:
Post a Comment