BROOKVILLE, Ohio — Cover crops are a vital link in a system of farming that protects the health of soil and water. The Montgomery Soil and Water Conservation District has been working to promote and lead the way with local farmers in the adoption of cover crops.

It recently hosted a free breakfast for farmers, with regional experts on hand to talk about cover crops. Jim Hoorman, soil health specialist with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), discussed how cover crops fit into a farming system that promotes soil health, a diverse soil ecosystem and good economics.

Philip Huffman of Huffman LLC, a cover crop seed specialist, talked about what has worked in the area for local farmers, some lessons they have learned and what they are trying next. Everything Huffman Seed does is in a constant state of change as they learn and experiment with new things, he said.

Currently, before a corn crop, they are using a combination of barley, crimson clover, radish and either winter peas or vetch as a cover. “The pros and cons between the vetch and peas are, we feel we like peas better, but they don’t seem to overwinter quite as well as the vetch,” he explained.

“That is why we’re still experimenting. “In front of soybeans we run a lot of cereal rye and radish. The advantage of soybeans and cereal rye is cereal rye can be a strong weed fighter. We find, when we put down 50 to 60 pounds of cereal rye, we don’t have to use residual herbicides in front of soybeans.”

Huffman is still experimenting with the termination time. Right now they plant into the crop when it is green and still alive and kill it in spring after the field is planted; however, weather conditions don’t always allow that to happen.

“After cover-cropping planting is easier; the soil is more mellow, softer,” he said.

 

Hoorman told the group that cover crops are good at adding organic matter to the soil and improving microbes.

“Where we have live plants we’ll have anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 more microbes associated with those plants, so it substantially increases the microbial population,” he said. “There is a big flush of microbial activity around the roots of the plant; there are a lot more there than in bare soil. That is important because each one of those microbes is like a soluble bag of fertilizer.”

About 400 million years ago when plants first developed on the Earth, they didn’t have that many roots, Hoorman explained. They used mycorrhizal fungi in the soil to draw water and nutrients to the plant. Over time the plants started growing their own roots and started doing those things on their own.

“Right now about 80 to 90 percent of the plants use mycorrhizal fungus as root extenders,” he said. “Corn by itself with the roots can explore maybe 1 percent of the soil, but when you’ve got mycorrhizal fungus, they can explore up to 20 percent of the nearby soil. Soil microbes are very important with helping us with plant nutrition that ultimately results in higher yields.”

Farmers do a lot of tillage in the fall when there are no live plants, Hoorman added. When the soil is tilled, the microbial population dies off. When that happens, many of the nutrients aren’t being absorbed. Then with snow melt and spring rains, these valuable nutrients end up in the rivers and streams.

Area farmer Tom Hertlein attended the program; he has been experimenting with cover crops for a long time. While a lot of it looks good, it may take expensive equipment, he said. He has tried to make cover crops work using basic equipment instead.

Hertlein seeds with his no-till drill. His farm is adjacent to the Dayton Airport, so aerial seeding is not an option. He uses wheat or rye right after soybeans. “We’ve been doing a lot with grasses, working our way up to some of these complicated mixes,” he said. “Sometimes you’re planting into things, and you say, ‘No way will this work,’ but then you come back a month later, and all you see is nice beans.

“This year I plan on going in and spraying everything with a 2,4-D mix to get rid of the marestail. My plan is to go in as soon as the beans are off, apply potash or lime, then put in no-till wheat (as a cover crop).”

As soon as the wheat is up, around late November, Hertlein will spray for weeds, and hopefully he’ll have some “have some nice green stuff” to plant into next year. “Some positive effects I’ve seen from the cover crops, the ground is so much nicer to plant into,” he said. “It gives you a good feeling when you’re planting because you know it is not going to wash out.”

The free breakfast was in partnership with Ohio Department of Agriculture, Division of Soil and Water Conservation, and the Ohio Soil and Water Conservation Commission through its 2017 Healthy Soils Mini-Grant Program. 

 

Cover crops are a vital link in a system of farming that protects the health of soil and water. The Montgomery Soil and Water Conservation District has been working to promote and lead the way with local farmers in the adoption of cover crops.