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Not a great spring for cover crops in Minnesota
Cool, wet conditions stunted the performance of cover crops this spring.
University of Minnesota sustainable cropping systems professor Axel Garcia says growth was slowed by a cold March and snowy April.
“Basically we had a pretty late spring and didn’t have enough heat for those crops to grow, especially winter rye, which is the most suitable cover crop for conditions in this state.”
He tells Brownfield winter rye seeded in the fall usually starts to grow in March.
“But this year, because we had a very cold March and April our cover crops didn’t produce too much biomass.”
Using May 10th as a benchmark because that’s when winter rye is normally terminated, Garcia says this spring total biomass production was 60 to 70 percent below previous years.
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