First things first: here is a talk that I gave at the Wheat Field Day at the University of Kentucky Research and Education Center in Princeton. It deals with using wheat as a cover crop compared to cereal rye. Most of it addresses this issue from a weed management and planting perspective.
Now... In case you hadn't noticed, it has been warm. (Or, in my opinion, HOT for early May.) The National Weather Service says that we haven't set many daily maximum temperature records, but the first half of May was the second warmest on record in Lexington. Check out the crop progress report for both corn planting and winter wheat heading--look how far behind we were in late April and then look at how steep the lines climb in early May. We had pretty ideal planting conditions, until the unsettled weather this week brought some heavy rains. Inches of rain in a short period soon after planting usually isn't good--soil washes away and nitrogen applied to soils without plants is lost more readily. All the more reason to use those cover crops to keep your soil covered--just make sure you're timing termination to what your planter can handle!
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AuthorErin Haramoto, University of Kentucky weed science Archives
May 2018
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