August 24, 2007

After harvesting corn for silage, ground can lay bare for eight to nine months, exposing it to wind and water erosion and not producing any income.

Cover crops might help you overcome both problems.

Deciding what to plant depends primarily on what you want to achieve with your cover crop. For example, hairy vetch is an excellent cover crop if you want to improve your soil by planting a legume that will produce nitrogen for next year's crop.

If you're still hoping for some feed this fall, the best choice might be oats because oats has the greatest forage yield potential in the fall. Another advantage of oats is that it will die over winter and not interfere with next year's crop. Oat residue, however, is not very durable and provides less effective soil protection for a shorter time.

For better soil protection, rye is the best choice among the cereals. Rye also provides abundant growth early next spring to get cows off of hay sooner. Its fall growth usually is a little better than wheat or triticale, but no where near that of oats.

To maximize late spring forage yield and quality, especially as hay or silage, triticale is best. While more expensive to plant and less winter hardy than rye, it can't be beat for late spring forage.

And, finally, winter wheat is your obvious choice if grain is your eventual goal following winter soil protection.Cover crops can preserve or even improve your soil, and can be useful crops as well. Consider them following your early harvests.

Bruce Anderson
Extension Forage Specialist, Lincoln