All that worry about our cold winter and spring, and look where we are now... almost two solid weeks of temps in the 80s and warm nights. We're done planting our corn trials at Spindletop, and even have some soybeans in the ground--earlier than usual. In the spring, I get a lot of questions about when to terminate cover crops like cereal rye. As usual, my answer is -- it depends! The main things it depends on... what do you want to get out of the cover crop? Another things to consider-- what kind of planter do you have, and how well can it deal with residue? I talked recently at the Wheat Field Day in Princeton, KY, in part about this topic and will post the video once available. Here are some photos from our cover crop trials. All of these plots were planted on 10/5/17 using a mixture of oats and cereal rye. I estimate the cereal rye seeding rate at approximately 30-40 lbs seed/acre. The oats winter-killed, leaving the cereal rye. If you want maximal weed suppression in the next crop, that comes from having more cover crop biomass. However, you must be able to deal with that biomass! If you are not equipped to plant through that residue, you are better off terminating earlier. Gaps in your stand will lead to less crop competition, and opportunities for weeds. If your main cover cropping goal is to keep the soil covered and return some organic matter, AND you are not ready to plant into residue, then terminating earlier is a good option. If you choose to terminate late, we recommend starting on a small piece and trying it out first...
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AuthorErin Haramoto, University of Kentucky weed science Archives
May 2018
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