As a farmer you’re always planning ahead – for the next day, the next week, the next season, the next year. As summer eases into its second half and as harvest looms, it’s not too early to think about the management of your crop fields once summer annuals are removed.
If cover crops will be following summer annuals, it’s not too early to start thinking about how you’re going to manage those cover crops.
Recently, Laura Tessieri, executive director of North Jersey RC&D, participated in a webinar in which she discussed the results of a soil health demonstration project which spanned the 2021 and 2022 growing seasons on 25 farms in New Jersey.
The goal of the project was to encourage farmers in the Garden State to experiment with delayed termination of cover crops and measure what kind of differences resulted from that practice as compared to the farmers’ existing practices.
Prior to the trial, farmers in New Jersey who used winter cover crops typically terminated those crops early, in March, Tessieri said. “Farmers told us that early termination was a way to ensure good planting conditions come planting time,” she said.
A downside of early termination is the fact that the cover crop won’t be able to provide as many soil benefits – less biomass, less nitrogen fixation and less organic matter.
So Tessieri and her colleagues designed a program to help mitigate the risk of practicing delayed termination. Farmers who participated in the trial would receive a stipend, soil testing, assistance in acquiring equipment and coverage in case the practice led to reduced yields.
The farmers had three options for delayed termination: late spring roller crimping, grazing down of the cover crop or planting green (with a roller crimper attached to the front of the tractor pulling the drill).
Crimping and drilling during the same pass can save fuel costs. Photo courtesy of Bridgett Hilshey, North Jersey RC&D
Fifty farmers applied for the program and 25 were selected. It was a paired trial, with the farmers practicing both their established management techniques as well as their chosen method of delayed termination, so as to be able to measure the difference between the two management approaches.
“We wanted to incentivize their next step in conservation – meet with them where they are and encourage them to take next step,” Tessieri said.
Many farmers chose planting green. “Our hypothesis about planting green was not only that it would build soil health but also that it would save farmers time and reduce input costs,” she said.
There were other projected and observed benefits from planting green as well. When you skip the step of terminating the crop (either with herbicide or by rolling) you don’t have to wait for the fields to dry out and risk a late planting. You also lower the chance of compacting soil by working wet soils. By letting the cover crop grow longer, you also build more organic matter in the soil and, if you’re growing legumes, fix more nitrogen.
The tall cover also protects your cash crop from predation by deer, slugs or birds. The cover crop mulch will also improve soil moisture conservation.
Comparing the experimental plots to the control plots, farmers saw less weed pressure. They also saw lower pesticide use and lower fuel use, since they didn’t have to make as many passes through their fields. The trial years were dry years, so they also reaped the benefit of their crops doing “better than expected,” as one of them said, thanks to the cover crops retaining soil moisture.
Farmers determined that early June is the best time to plant green in New Jersey – roller crimping in late May is too early. With rye, the best time to crimp is when the plant is flowering but before seed has set. The participants also realized that the planters went through the heavy residue easily.
“Most of the participating farmers plan to continue,” Tessieri said. “The first year provided them the financial assistance to reduce the risk to try new conservation practices. The second year allowed them to see the benefits of the practice more clearly.”
by Karl H. Kazaks
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