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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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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