March 28, 2024

Treating cover crops like cash crops

LINCOLN, Neb. — Treating cover crops like cash crops requires a systematic management approach, said Andrea Basche, professor University of Nebraska-Lincoln, during a webinar.

“I think the most important thing is thinking about your goals,” Basche said.

“What is your goal with the cover crop? You should always be starting from that point, in my opinion.”

While a number of approaches exist, farmers tend to report greatest success with drilling in cover crops post-harvest, she said.

Treating winter cover crops more like cash crops requires greater growing season utilization, particularly in cropping systems dominated by summer annual crops or colder climates.

There are opportunities to carefully manage variety selection and planting date to greatly increase cover crop biomass with limited yield impacts.

“We found that earlier planting, mid-September versus late October, could make 10 times a difference in the amount of biomass you could get if you’re thinking about terminating in mid-April,” Basche said.

There was four times greater biomass when terminating at the end of April versus the beginning.

View the complete presentation at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bno3AOds7Nw.