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Illinois farmers give advice to cover crop beginners

Two Illinois farmers say planting cereal rye ahead of soybeans is the best recipe for cover crops.

“I encourage guys to start out with cereal rye because we can plant cereal rye up to mid-November, so we have ample amount of time to get it established.”

Adam Dahmer with Advanced Cover Crops says soybeans are a more forgiving crop to follow with. John Pike with Pike Ag LLC tells Brownfield he agrees that corn is not the best place to start.

“Learn with the bean system and then work into corn, because if you start with a bean crop planted into the cover crop, by the time you plant another cover crop and then you come back to plant your corn you’ve really planted your fourth crop of no till. So, you’ve got a better handle on your equipment.”

Pike says this also allows for better aggregation and water infiltration before the next year’s corn crop.

Brownfield interviewed Pike and Dahmer at a field day in Springerton, Illinois.