New Resources for Cover Crops Users
Producers who plan to use cover crops between summer crops need to know which type (cereal, legume, brassica, or a mixture) and species of the chosen type to plant to accomplish the intended result (click here for a White Paper on this website that provides details about this). This will be an important decision since it likely will determine the amount of canopy cover and biomass that will be produced during the cover crop growing period. Results from Cover Crops Variety Trials can help with this decision.
During the fall/winter of 2018-2019, cover crops variety trails were conducted by Miss. State Univ. Seed of varieties of cereal rye, annual ryegrass, legumes, and radish were planted in early October at Holly Springs, Starkville, and Newton, Miss. Weed suppression and percentage canopy cover provided by each species at two termination dates were rated, and predicted nitrogen availability at 2 and 3 weeks and 3 months after two termination dates was calculated. Data were not collected at the Holly Springs site because of wildlife predation. Results from this research can be found here.
During the fall/winter of 2019-2020, cover crop variety trials were conducted by the Univ. of Tenn. Sixty cover crops varieties were grown and evaluated at ETREC-Knoxville, MTREC-Spring Hill, and RECM-Milan. Cereals (20 varieties), legumes (29 varieties), and brassicas (11 varieties) were evaluated for fall and winter canopy cover, biomass at termination, and estimated nitrogen release. Results from this research can be found here. According to Dr. Virginia Sykes, UT Variety Testing Coordinator, this is a planned annual activity. Go to here and here for presentations about the trial that were given by Dr. Sykes at the 2020 virtual Milan No-Till Field Day.
On another note, the Univ. of Illinois has developed a Cover Crop Analyzer that producers can use to help make decisions about cover crop management. This web-based decision support tool will provide farmers, researchers, extension specialists, and others with data and information about cover crop use and function. The current iteration uses cereal rye added to a corn-soybean rotation in Illinois fields, and provides projections for managing termination of the cover crop and calculating how much nitrogen it will scavenge. The Farmdoc project at the Univ. of Illinois plans to release updates to the analyzer as data and information become available. It is planned that fields outside of Illinois will be added to future releases. Users will need to create an account by clicking the “Register” button at the top of the home page.
Composed by Larry G. Heatherly, Oct. 2020, larryheatherly@bellsouth.net