Cover Crops: Benefits, Seeding Rates, and Nutrient Requirements

Cover Cropping can:

– Maintain cleaner surface and groundwater
– Improve soil physical & biological properties
– Relieve or reduce compaction
– Improve soil water availability
– Preserve soil organic matter
– Provide additional forage
– Act as a weed control
– Help control erosion
– Break Pest Cycles
– Store Nutrients

Deciding on which species to use depends on the intended use, timing of establishment, and field conditions. If additional forage is needed, then Winter Triticale has shown to have the best overall performance. It has better yield potential, stress tolerance, disease resistance, and it works better for pasture, hay, or silage than Winter Wheat. Winter Rye may provide high yields, but with less quality than Winter Triticale.

Knowing your county’s available Government cover crop programs (different programs have different incentives based on different mixing combinations of species) may provide additional financial assistance to go in one direction or the other. Watch, however, for potential additional programs that might be offered in hard hit drought areas – combining Rye / Triticale or Rye / Wheat can also work well as a spring forward solution. Those looking to improve soil conditions may want to add Winter Peas, Daikon Radish, Crimson Clover, or Hairy Vetch to improve soil tilth, preserve or gather nutrients, combat compaction, and preserve organic matter.

Proper establishment will yield best results. As always, soil – seed contact is important. The drill will give the best results in most cases. Broadcast seed will require higher seeding rates per acre and should have some tillage to get some seed coverage. Seed depth from 1/2 – 2 inches is desired for most winter cover crop seeds. Knowing the seed and mix being used is important to select the correct depth.

Take a look at some of the following cover crop options:

Seeding Rate: 64 – 120 #/Acre
Seeding Depth: 1 – 2″
pH: 5.5 – 7.0
Plant: Mid – August to Mid – September
Establishment Fertility: 30 – 10 – 10
Winter kills leaving a suitable no – till surface. May be mixed with radish for soil conditioning

Winter Wheat

Seeding Rate: 90 – 150 #/Acre
Seeding Depth: 1 – 2″
pH: 6.0 – 7.0
Plant: Late August – October
Establishment Fertility: 35 – 30 – 20
For forage or grain – addition 30 – 50# Nitrogen with 4 – 6# Sulfur

Winter Rye
Seeding Rate: 75 – 140 #/Acre
Seeding Depth: 1 – 2″
pH: 5.5 – 7.0
Plant: Late August – October
Establishment Fertility: 30 – 20 – 20
For forage or grain – additional Nitrogen in the spring will be beneficial

Winter Triticale
Seeding Rate: 90 – 140 #/Acre
Seeding Depth: 1 – 2″
pH: 5.8 – 7.0
Plant: Late August – October
Establishment Fertility: 35 – 25 – 30
For forage or grain, additional Nitrogen and potassium will be beneficial

Some other amendments which can be added to the Winter Cover Crops for N – fixation or soil tilth could be:

Winter Field Peas for N – fixation at 20 – 30 #/Acre
Daikon Radish for soil tilth at 2 – 7 #/Acre