COVER-CROP INFORMATION

       A good article in No-Till Farmer (June 18th, 2018 edition) on the experience of John Stigge.  Stigge no-tills corn, soybeans, wheat, oats, milo and raises livestock on 2000ac near Washington, KS.  He has cover cropped ground for many years.  Real progress has been made to soil health in the past 5 years, after years of trial and error, and some notable failures.   He has found that grazing cover-crops have given him positive income when grain has not, and that grazing has accelerated microbiology.   Here are some points he expressed that I found pertinent.  Keep in mind this is KS, with a much longer growing season than we have in the Inland Northwest.
     ---Three main species work synergistically!  He states that brassicas, legumes and grasses work together supporting soil biology and providing nutrients for cash crops.  He has found that using the three together has been the secret to getting the results he wants.
     ---Use of Grasses in mixes!  Stigge finds grasses are an essential foundation to cover-crop mixes.  He likes annual ryegrass as it's relatively inexpensive, grows extensive, deep root systems, and are easy to terminate.  After starting to use annual ryegrass, his OM started to jump.
      Cereal rye is used by many no-tillers.  He states that those looking for cover, but have to put up with late seeding dates, go this route but he found cereal rye problematic and quit using the cultivar.  (my note:  I have found only one other article expressing a concern using cereal rye, --and I know it is problematic.  We are still rouging cereal rye out of our fields after 70+ years since it's introduction.  That one article cautioned, to use cereal rye seed that the supplier can certify being one cereal rye cultivar, and not a mix of 5 cultivars that is commonly sold as cereal rye.  Growth habits vary with each type of cultivar. )

<---pic shows cereal rye plant in WW.  65 years ago you could hardly see the wheat for the rye.  Today, we still walk our fields and find a few stalks of rye.  If you miss a year, you have a bigger problem the next year.  
         Stigge also noted that cereal rye, once it hits boot stage has the value of compost from a grazing standpoint.
        Oats are a great soil conditioner and hold their grazing value through it's life cycle.  Stigge likes using oats, vetch, peas, and a brassica for weed control in his organic program.  After it dies he grazes calves through the winter with no additional feed.  He once rolled out a bale of alfalfa and they used it for bedding, not interested in eating any of it.
    ---Use of Legumes in mixes!  Stigge includes a legume in all his mixes.  They are expensive but very important part of his mixes and about half the mix cost.  They not only sequester free N in the soil but support rhizobia bacterium to fix N, and feed mycorrhizal fungi that serve as the transportation network bringing nutrients from plant to plant.  Legumes also aid in the formation of globulin which is important for soil aggregation.  Vetch (seeded in summer or early fall) is a good spring grazing cultivar if you don't have to terminate to early.  He likes Naomi Wooly Pod vetch, a variety from Australia.  It will start nodules after seven days.  He likes cow peas and they all die with one 37F night in either spring or fall (probably not an option for us where we will reach that temp, or lower, nearly every month of the year).  Stigge likes flying on crimson clover with annual ryegrass.  Berseem clover is for warm season use.  He has found Sunn hemp is good.  Seed is becoming more available and with better inoculants.  It does require heat though to perform well.  Sunn hemp builds a lot of N and has a tap root that goes deep.
      ---Use of Brassicas in mixes!  He has found that brassicas bring up nutrients from deep in the profile and make them available to cash crops.  Their exudates break off calcium, sulfur and other minerals from phosphorous compounds to make them more available.  He likes mustards and radishes, and particularly the bayou kale-rapeseed cross.  This cross has an exceptional root structure.  This cross also brings in a lot of leaf eaters, but they quickly are countered by predator bugs, so don't apply insecticides.  Stigge finds that Daikon radish is great for loosing top soil but the leaves are bitter and livestock don't like it until after a frost.