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New and improved ways to seed cover crops in Upper Midwest

Farmers in the Upper Midwest are finding new and better ways to seed cover crops.

Soil Health Partnership field manager Tricia Verville says growing cover crops in northern states like Minnesota and Wisconsin has been a challenge.

“It’s not quite as convenient to be able to just simply put them in after we harvest our crops, specifically in a corn grain rotation.”

She tells Brownfield inter-seeding cover crops is proving to be an effective strategy in northern territories.

“There’s a lot of different equipment out there.  People retrofitting some of your sprayers, or using a conventional spreader to get stuff out there.  Planes, helicopters, inter-seeder machines (are also being used).”

For inter-seeding cover crops into corn, Verville says the V4 to V6 stage seems to be the best time.  For soybeans, she recommends waiting till the end of the growing season when the plants start dropping leaves.

Verville will be part of a cover crops field day Tuesday near Buffalo Lake, Minnesota, west of the Twin Cities.