Latest / The Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Podcast / Episode 84 | Cover Crop Conversations: practical management advice
Transcript
- NLRS 84 In this episode of the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction podcast, three Illinois farmers—Adam Dahmer, Brent Fowler, and Greg Thoren—share practical advice and hard-learned lessons on managing cover crops and transitioning to no-till farming. Dahmer emphasizes the importance of monitoring soil moisture during aerial seeding, properly timing termination, and actively researching how to calibrate planting equipment for specific field conditions. Fowler reflects on his early mistakes with no-till, advising newcomers to transition gradually, increase their soybean seeding rates and planter down pressure, and plant at an angle to avoid old crop rows. He also strongly recommends using cover crops to target highly erodible areas to prevent soil loss. Finally, Thoren highlights the broader regenerative benefits of cover crops, noting that keeping green plants in the field for a longer portion of the year improves soil biology and enhances both air and water quality. Cover Crop Conversations: practical management advice * Adam Dahmer, Williamson County, Illinois Farmer * Greg Thoren, Jo Davies County, Illinois Farmer * Brent Fowler, McDonough County, Illinois Farmer --- Todd Gleason: This is the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction podcast, episode number 84: Cover Crop Conversations, Practical Management Advice. I am University of Illinois Extension’s Todd Gleason. Today, in part three of our Cover Crop Conversations series, we will hear again from three farmers. This time, they will provide advice about the hard lessons they have learned over the decades, and more importantly, the practical things someone new—or even experienced—can and likely should deploy. Our program comes from a longer webinar where the three sat down with University of Illinois Extension’s Rachel Curry to talk openly about their operations. As we have told you in the past, they are from vastly different parts of the state. Adam Dahmer farms in deep southern Illinois, not far from the Ohio River. Brent Fowler’s farm sits halfway between the Illinois and the Mississippi Rivers in McDonough County. Greg Thoren farms in the driftless region of the northwestern corner of the Prairie State in Jo Daviess County. Today, we will hear their final thoughts on using cover crops as explored in the webinar and some down-to-earth, practical management advice. We will start with seeding a cover crop. Adam Dahmer likes to have it flown on, but not with a plane. Adam Dahmer: Regarding planting, as I touched on earlier, we have tried it all. We have pretty well settled on aerial applying with a drone before harvest in standing corn, and then we drill after soybean harvest. With that being said, we still monitor soil moisture because there is no advantage to throwing seed out in a drought and running the risk of getting a small rain that germinates and dies because it lacks sufficient moisture to survive. We keep that monitored as we look at establishing the cover crop. As we go into the spring, I have done it all, from roller crimping to terminating the ryegrass right after it breaks dormancy. Right now, we are settling on taking the ryegrass out after the second time we mow our yard; that is about ideal to remove the ryegrass because it has such a dense root structure. With the weather patterns we have experienced over the past 24 months, I cannot achieve the amount of top growth I prefer due to the extensive rainfall in my area. The last two falls have been prohibitive for getting legumes established. If we can establish legumes, we will still take the ryegrass out early and let the legumes bloom. Maximum nitrogen production takes place right at bloom, so we try to reach that point. As far as planting the cash crop, you really must pay attention to how your equipment is set up. You want good openers, good closing wheels, and you must pay attention to what works best for your operation. About 10 years ago, a group of farmers in my area got together, tried many different types of closing wheels to see what worked best, and conducted some studies. That proved to be excellent research for all of us and helped guide what we were looking at. Nonetheless, what worked on some farms did not work for others. Regarding termination, I have done it with a drone and with a ground rig. Last year, we did not get it killed as timely as I wished, and that cost us some heartache moving forward. But all in all, that is pretty well how we approach it. Todd Gleason: Again, that is Adam Dahmer. He is from Williamson County, Illinois, and just put forth a two-and-a-half-minute primer on managing a cover crop. Now, let’s turn to Brent Fowler. He is in the western and middle part of the state and has some advice, not exactly on cover crops, but on the transition many producers make on the way to cover crops, which is no-till. Brent Fowler: This is one thing I was excited to talk about because I tried no-till about 25 years ago, and mistakes were made. I remember thinking I was done with no-till. I was making a list this morning of the mistakes I made. Number one, around the year 2000, we used a John Deere 750 drill—we still have that drill—but we quit tillage cold turkey on the field we tried this on. I think that might be a mistake. If I picked up my neighbor’s field with heavy tillage, when that field was corn stalks before beans, I do not think I would plan on no-tilling the beans. I would probably take a vertical tillage tool and chop up that residue because it takes a few years to get your microorganisms really cooking and breaking down the residue, which is a problem for us anyway. So, not gradually working into no-till was our first mistake. The next mistake was not increasing our seeding rate. When you are in no-till, rough conditions, or cereal rye, it is important to increase your soybean seeding rate. We did increase our down pressure, but probably not enough. It takes a lot of down pressure sometimes to penetrate hard ground in certain conditions, especially on really white dirt. On black dirt, it seems like you can get by with anything, but tough timber soil can turn to concrete. Cover crops might help with that. Another mistake—the easiest thing to fix—is that if I could go back and tell my younger self 25 years ago to do one thing differently, I would tell myself to plant the beans at an angle. It is easy to do and costs nothing. I did not do any research before going into no-till, and I did not talk to anyone doing it. I planted exactly straight, the same as we had planted the corn. What happens is a disk opener gets stuck on top of the prior year’s corn stalk row, and you do not get the depth on those rows. If you are on 15-inch row beans and half of them are directly on top of the prior year’s corn row, that will not go well. Planting on an angle gets those disk openers off the corn rows for a higher percentage of the time. For a couple of years, we had horrible stands of beans. We did not increase our seeding rate, we lacked sufficient down pressure, we did not plant at an angle, and it caused significant yield problems. Being 23 at the time, I did not know the beans would be shorter. Now I know that is to be expected. We are not in a competition to see how tall we can get the plants; we want pods. It does not matter how tall the plant is. But when you are 23 and the beans are shorter, that feels like a problem. Being in the combine back in 2000—without scales on the auger wagon or a good way to weigh a test—and seeing shorter beans, I had already made up my mind. I did not want no-till. Now that I am older and know what to expect, it is still a little hard driving down the road and seeing the neighbor’s beans 10 inches taller than yours. It is definitely harder for my dad and my oldest son. Todd Gleason: The practical advice Brent Fowler is discussing is to talk about the transitions you want to make with producers who have already made them. Planting on an angle, or moving the line seven and a half inches over, will be really helpful in no-till. Discuss what differences you might expect in a growing crop because of the no-till environment. Adam Dahmer said it best as he was wrapping up that webinar with Rachel Curry. Adam Dahmer: Do your own research. Take part of your farm, try new things, pay attention to your equipment regarding what is working and what is not working, and do not be afraid to spend a couple thousand dollars on your planter to completely enhance your operation based on performance. Get out of the tractor seat and see what is actually taking place on your operation. Brent Fowler: From my earlier story, I am probably a poster child for what can go wrong if you do not do any research. One of the things we do on our farm that is different from almost all other farmers in this area is follow our bean combine with our old 750 drill and plant triticale in the most erodible spots immediately after bean harvest. The reason that is important is we do not have many erosion problems on corn stalks before beans, but we do have horrible erosion at times on bean stubble before corn. Several years ago, after we had done tests proving reduced till was just as profitable, or maybe a little more, I remember being excited that with no-till, we were going to be done with erosion. I thought we were done with gullies and it would be nice to not deal with them. That was not the case. After no-tilling for so many years, our residue decomposes so fast it is shocking, and we started to have erosion trouble. I remember reading about that from an older farmer, and I thought he was crazy, but it happened to us. That is where cover crops come in. We still see erosion happen on soybean stubble. If you do nothing else with cover crops—if you do not want to plant the whole field with cereal rye or triticale—take a small drill and at least plant those highly erodible spots, the repeat offenders. Get some cover crop on those areas because cover crops are the silver bullet for erosion control. Greg Thoren: We as farmers grow plants. That is what we do. Todd Gleason: This is Greg Thoren. He is the farmer from Jo Daviess County. Greg Thoren: Whether we use those as an income source—corn, beans, wheat, and various other plants—when using cover crops, we are simply planting or seeding different plants. One nice thing about cover crops is that they are out there longer throughout the year. As farmers, we should be delighted to see that because more green in the field relates back to more soil life, cleaner water, cleaner air, and the whole system. Everything we should be doing is to regenerate the soil, and I believe the participants here today have shown that. Todd Gleason: Practical advice from three no-tillers who use cover crops. It is part of our Cover Crops Conversation series here on the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction podcast. Our program is produced in collaboration with University of Illinois Extension’s Rachel Curry, Nicole Haverback, and Luke Zwilling. Until next time, I am your host, Todd Gleason.