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4. Select the Best Cover Crop You have a goal and a niche. Now specify the traits a cover crop would need to work well. Example 1. A sloping orchard needs a ground cover to reduce erosion. You’d like it to contribute N and organic matter and attract beneficial organisms but not rodents,nematodes or other pests. The cover can’t use too much water or tie up nutrients at key periods. Too much N might stimulate excessive leaf growth or prevent hardening off before winter. Finally you want easy maintenance. The cover crop should: • be a perennial or reseeding annual • be low-growing, needing minimal management • use water efficiently • have a soil-improving root system • release some nutrients during the year, but not too much N • not harbor or attract pests For this orchard scenario, white clover is probably the best option north of Zone 8. A mixture of low-growing legumes or a legume and grass mix could also work. In warm regions, lowgrowing clovers such as strawberry clover and white clover work well together, although these species may attract pocket gophers. BLANDO brome and annual ryegrass are two quick-growing, reseeding grasses often suitable for orchard floors. One of these might fill the bill with a reseeding, winter annual legume such as crimson clover, rose clover, subclover, an annual vetch or an annual medic, depending on your climate. Example 2. A dairy lacks adequate storage in fall and winter for the manure it generates, which exceeds the nutrient needs for its silage corn and grass/legume hay rotation. The cover crop needs to: • establish effectively after (or tolerate) silage corn harvest • take up a lot of N and P in fall and hold it until spring For this dairy scenario, rye is often recommended. Other cereal grains or brassicas could work if planted early enough. Example 3. In a moderate rainfall region after small grain harvest in late summer, you want a soil-protecting winter cover that can supply N for no-till corn next spring. You want to kill the cover without herbicides. You need a legume that: • can be drilled in late summer and put on a lot of fall growth • will overwinter • will fix a lot of N • can be mow-killed shortly before (or after) corn planting • could provide some weed-controlling, moisture-conserving residue Hairy vetch works well in the Northeast, Midwest and parts of the mid-South. Mixing it with rye or another cereal improves its weedmanagement and moisture-conservation potential.Crimson clover may be an appropriate choice for the southeastern Piedmont. Austrian winter pea could be considered, alone or in a mix, in coastal plain environments. Where grain harvest occurs in late spring or early summer, LANA woollypod vetch might be a better choice. HAIRY VETCH is an winter annual legume that grows slowly in fall, then fixes a lot of N in spring. 14 MANAGING COVER CROPS PROFITABLY
5. Settle for the Best Available Cover. . . It’s likely the “wonder crop” you want doesn’t exist. One or more species could come close, as the above examples indicate. Top Regional Cover Crop Species (p. 47) can provide a starting point. Check with regional experts. Keep in mind that you can mix two or more species. Example 4. After a spring broccoli crop, you need a weed-suppressing cover that adds N and organic matter, and perhaps mulch, into which you will no-till seed fall lettuce or spinach. You want a cover that: • is very versatile • grows fast in hot weather • can be overseeded into broccoli • germinates on the soil surface under dry conditions • fixes N • persists until you’re ready to kill it Here, a quick-growing, warm-season legume such as cowpeas may work, especially if you can irrigate to hasten establishment during dry conditions. 6. . . .Or Build a Rotation Around Cover Crops. It’s hard to decide in advance every field’s crops, planting dates, fieldwork or management specifics. One alternative is to find out which cover crops provide the best results on your farm, then build a rotation around those covers. See Full-Year Covers Tackle Tough Weeds (p. 38). With this “reverse” strategy, you plan covers according to their optimum field timing, and then determine the best windows for cash crops. A cover crop’s strengths help you decide which cash crops would benefit the most. For now, however, you probably want to fit one or more cover crops into your existing rotations. The charts and narratives in this book can help you select some of the most suitable species for your farming system and objectives. See Crop Rotations with Cover Crops (p. 34) to get you thinking more. When you’ve narrowed your choices, refer to Appendix A, Testing Cover Crops on Your Farm (p. 156) for some straightforward tips on what to do next. Adapted from Northeast Cover Crop Handbook by Marianne Sarrantonio, Rodale Institute, 1994. WINTER (cereal) RYE is an annual grain that prevents soil and wind erosion. Its killed vegetation suppresses weeds for no-till planting. SELECTING THE BEST COVER CROPS 15
Page 1 and 2: $19.00 Managing Cover Crops Profita
Page 3 and 4: SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE NETWORK THE
Page 5 and 6: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book represent
Page 7 and 8: FOREWORD Cover crops slow erosion,
Page 9 and 10: HOW TO USE THIS BOOK Think of this
Page 11 and 12: BENEFITS OF COVER CROPS Cover crops
Page 13 and 14: decompose quickly, especially in wa
Page 15: Expect excessive field traffic arou
Page 19 and 20: ORGANIC MATTER ADDITIONS The benefi
Page 21 and 22: Cover Crops Can Stabilize Your Soil
Page 23 and 24: generally a good idea to kill a leg
Page 25 and 26: • For perennial legumes that have
Page 27 and 28: MANAGING PESTS WITH COVER CROPS By
Page 29 and 30: The farmers get weed control by fla
Page 31 and 32: insects. This approach has been use
Page 33 and 34: • Subterranean Clover (Trifolium
Page 35 and 36: does no direct tillage, but aggress
Page 37 and 38: eplace the cover crop before beans,
Page 39 and 40: as buckwheat, cowpeas, sorghum-suda
Page 41 and 42: the couple harrows every two to thr
Page 43 and 44: Start Where You Are In many instanc
Page 45 and 46: INTRODUCTION TO CHARTS The four com
Page 47 and 48: pH Preferred. The pH range in which
Page 49 and 50: Chart 1 TOP REGIONAL COVER CROP SPE
Page 51 and 52: Chart 2 PERFORMANCE AND ROLES conti
Page 53 and 54: Chart 3B PLANTING Cost Cost/A Inoc.
Page 55 and 56: Chart 4B POTENTIAL DISADVANTAGES Sp
Page 57 and 58: ANNUAL RYEGRASS Lolium multiflorum
Page 59 and 60: prolonged heat, cold or drought.Tha
Page 61 and 62: crop for establishing a forage or l
Page 63 and 64: arley plants from fungus, armyworm
Page 65 and 66: can increase the fertilizer replace
Page 67 and 68:
cultural and local considerations t
Page 69 and 70:
(339), and by 99 percent in a Calif
Page 71 and 72:
Killing & Controlling Nutrient avai
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ye/vetch/crimson clover,for example
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• In the Corn Belt and northern U
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Wheat Offers High-Value Weed Contro
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BUCKWHEAT Fagopyrum esculentum Type
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Rotations Buckwheat is used most co
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plants fractured subsoil compaction
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press some species of nematodes. Sp
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Incorporated sorghum-sudangrass res
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lodge soil particles. Sunlight is u
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Crimson-Berseem Clover Combo Works
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in water-use efficiency in the tria
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Microorganisms mineralize, or conve
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COWPEAS Vigna unguiculata Also call
Page 99 and 100:
control if you go with rows, using
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drought-tolerant sorghum-sudangrass
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several winter annual legumes that
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In Ohio, crimson clover mixed with
Page 107 and 108:
FIELD PEAS Pisum sativum subsp. arv
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Chill tolerant. Austrian winter pea
Page 111 and 112:
In a “Flexible Green Manure” cr
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values from 13 to 34,but were gener
Page 115 and 116:
year Maryland study that also inclu
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possible, but remember that hairy v
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especially in winter grains. With w
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less biomass than overwintering sta
Page 123 and 124:
Jess Counts on GEORGE for N and Org
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after mid-April planting in souther
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second cutting. Regrowth comes from
Page 129 and 130:
RED CLOVER Trifolium pratense Also
Page 131 and 132:
MANAGEMENT Establishment & Fieldwor
Page 133 and 134:
it function more like a biennial th
Page 135 and 136:
Subclover cultivars often are descr
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trample in the seed. Subclover ofte
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Crop Systems Interseeded with wheat
Page 141 and 142:
SWEETCLOVERS Yellow sweetclover (Me
Page 143 and 144:
difficult to establish annual cover
Page 145 and 146:
Spring seeding provides yellow swee
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enhances soil fertility, texture an
Page 149 and 150:
WHITE CLOVER Trifolium repens Also
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for several freeze-thaw cycles. Mak
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COMPARATIVE NOTES • White clover
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Fall planting. Most growers seed at
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combining with a belt-type rubber p
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Then seed the remainder while walki
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screening, a number of farmers have
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the seed is relatively expensive. B
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Dyer, David A. 1998. Conservation L
Page 167 and 168:
OTHER RESOURCES Cover Crops On The
Page 169 and 170:
Cal/West Seeds Box 1428 Woodland, C
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Pick Seed Canada P.O. Box 304 1 Gre
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SARE Northeast Region Office Univer
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APPENDIX F REGIONAL EXPERTS These i
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David W. Wolfe Cornell University 1
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Bob Burdette Southern Seed Certific
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Shiou Kuo Washington State Universi
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20 Bird, George. 1997. Personal com
Page 185 and 186:
59 Clark,A.J. 1993. Managing hairy
Page 187 and 188:
102 Fernholz, Carmen. 1997. Persona
Page 189 and 190:
141 Helm, J.L. and Dwain Meyer. 199
Page 191 and 192:
186 Koume, C.N. et al. 1988. Screen
Page 193 and 194:
226 Mohler, Charles L. 1994.A livin
Page 195 and 196:
267 Plumer, Mike. 1997. Personal co
Page 197 and 198:
309 Shrestha,A. et al. 1996.“Annu
Page 199 and 200:
352 Varco, J.J., J.O. Sanford and J
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Bulk Discounts: Except as indicated
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INDEX A Alfalfa, 10, 42, 84, 88, 94
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performance and roles, 48-49 planti
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sorghum-sudangrass hybrids, 85 subt
Page 209 and 210:
subterranean clovers, 133, 137 swee
Page 211 and 212:
comparative notes, 71 crop systems,
Page 213 and 214:
crimson clover for, 102, 103 crop r
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