Under The Covers

By Pam Smith
DTN Progressive Farmer Crops Technology Editor

Every bag of radish seed that leaves Garth Mulkey's farm has his phone number attached. The Monmouth, Ore., cover crop seed grower may be 2,000 miles away from most of his customers, but a one-on-one relationship is part of the deal.

"The use of cover crops is personal," Mulkey said. "Growers need to go into it by first asking what they want to achieve through the practice, and then, decide what crop cover species will help achieve that goal. A good seed supplier not only assures quality and purity [of the seed] but is also available as a resource to help the customer."

The popularity of cover crops combined with the management complexities makes knowing the seed supplier vital, agrees Mike Plumer, an Illinois-based agricultural conservation consultant and former University of Illinois Extension specialist. U.S. Census of Agriculture figures released in May 2014 show cover crops now blanket more than 10 million acres. That's more than three times what USDA has been using as an estimate and a hint of the expanding acreage.

GROWING PAINS

"We're experiencing some growing pains," Plumer acknowledges. "There are a lot of really good seed companies and independent growers, but we've also seen some problems emerge as the industry has scrambled to find enough seed to satisfy demand." Plumer's concerns range from ill-adapted varieties to mixed varieties within a bag to issues of low-quality seed.

"There were thousands of acres of cereal rye planted in Illinois that didn't come up in 2013," he reports. "The germination when we tested the seed was less than 10%, but the tag said 90%. Yes, we had a harsh winter, but we also had a lot of good cereal rye last year."

Part of the problem is many cover crop species and varieties within those species weren't initially developed for large-scale production agriculture or the region where they are being planted.

Annual ryegrass is a good example, said Nick Bowers, Harrisburg, Ore. Eight years ago, he and neighbor, Wayne Kizer, melded generations of grass seed growing experience to form KB Seed Solutions. They now grow and market two annual ryegrass varieties, KB Royal and KB Supreme, specially developed with enough winter hardiness to withstand conditions in the central Corn Belt.

"Most of the ryegrass varieties being grown in Oregon are suited for grazing in the southern U.S. Texas -- where a cold day is 45 degrees Fahrenheit -- is the largest consumer of annual ryegrass," Bowers said. "We saw an opportunity to differentiate our product by developing varieties more tailored to the Midwest and to cover crops."

PRODUCTION PRACTICES MATTER, TOO

"We can provide detailed field records, and we are growing the same variety in the same field year after year," Bowers notes. "We have our own cleaning, handling and bagging facilities, so we have control over segregation."

Varietal purity with ryegrass is key when used as a cover, Plumer said. "Different characteristics of ryegrass within a field might be an advantage if you want the crop strictly for grazing, but it becomes a problem for cover croppers if those varieties break dormancy at different times. A grower could spray the crop and, three weeks later, have a solid stand again," he said.

Plumer said blending of annual ryegrass varieties has been a problem, especially in years when seed runs short. He recalls an instance in the 1990s when he planted annual ryegrass that contained six different varieties with a five-week span in maturity. It took five herbicide applications to kill it.

OREGON TRAIL

Seed production dominates agriculture in the Willamette Valley, a 35-mile-wide slice of western Oregon nestled between two mountain ranges and stretching about 120 miles south of the Columbia River. The climate here is perfect for clovers, cool-season grasses and some of the brassicas that have become popular cover crop species.

"We have a long, cool growing season because of our proximity to the ocean," Mulkey explains. "We're wet from October through May and in a seasonal drought from mid-June through September. So we have very low disease pressure and dry conditions for harvest."

A checkerboard of test plots dots Mulkey's farm. Some of the crops growing here would stump even the most seasoned cover cropper. New projects include looking closer at phacelia and meadowfoam as cover crop options.

"I've grown 25 different crops over the last five years," he said. "I try to grow 10 to 12 different things a year and have a goal in my head to grow something new every year." Mulkey works directly with growers to create custom blends or mixtures of different cover crop species. He also sells seeds to other cover crop companies.

His signature product is a daikon radish variety marketed as Tilth Pro NitroRadish. The taproot of the oilseed radish is heralded for its ability to scavenge residual nutrients and penetrate plow pans or compaction layers.

Cover Crop Solutions, a Pennsylvania-based cover crop company, markets its version of this "bio-driller" under the Tillage Radish brand name. The company also includes the radish in a number of species mixes.

Multispecies blends is the trend as growers get more comfortable with cover crops, said Trek Murray, Beck's Hybrids forage and cover crop manager. Beck's, a regional seed company based in Indiana, expanded into cover crops about five years ago. "We already had a forage business, and farmers were asking for cover crops.

"We started with a few thousand acres of sales and are now sourcing seed that covers approximately 100,000 acres," Murray said. "Farmers see it as a way to increase profitability on existing acres through soil health improvements."

GOAL ORIENTED

Not one species has all the answers, agrees Keith Berns, Green Cover Seed, Bladen, Neb. "The first thing to ask is what do you want to accomplish," Berns said. "Is it grazing, nitrogen production, general soil health?

"A lot of our growers are asking what can be planted after wheat harvest to produce nitrogen. That might be cowpeas, mung beans or soybeans," he said. "It makes a big difference where that grower lives, too. We're looking at working things like guar, a warm-season legume that is drought tolerant, into some of our warm-season mixes for western areas. Hybrid forage collard—a cold-tolerant brassica with high protein and digestibility features—is popular with cattle producers because it is big, leafy, nutritious with good regrowth."

Green Cover Seed's SmartMix calculator (greencoverseed.com/smartmix-calculator) is currently considered the industry's standard online resource. More than 65 cover crop species are included. Users input zip code, frost-free date, rainfall, plans for subsequent crop and soil health goals. "Growers get a ranking of recommended cover crops, including the estimated real-time cost," Berns said.

"Cost usually depends on how much nitrogen they want to try to produce. The legume component is always the most expensive." He estimates a seed costs for a basic mix range from $20 to $25 per acre; $25 to $30 per acre for mid-range of legumes and $30 to $35 per acre for high-end mixes aimed at the grazing market. "If they aren't grazing, we'll use some less-expensive brassicas," Berns said.

Midwestern corn and soybean farmers are using cover crops, but how many options they have depends a bit on how far north they are, whether they are using airplanes to overseed cover crops for an early establishment or if they can change their rotation, notes Sarah Carlson, Midwest cover crop research coordinator with Practical Farmers of Iowa. "In most years, we don't have a lot of time to grow nitrogen from legumes. We don't have a lot of time to grow brassicas to control nematodes and diseases.

"Although those cover crops are really cool, corn and soybeans are in the way," she said. "What I'm beginning to see are farmers working winter wheat or small grains back into their rotations so they have time to utilize them. That's huge." Some growers are also planting earlier maturing corn and soybeans to widen the cover crop planting window.

Plumer said the good news for cover croppers is more seed companies and universities are doing variety and profitability trials.

Still, the best seed in the world won't make up for lack of management, Bowers adds. "Growers that treat cover crops as a cash crop will reap the most benefits.

"Find a good supplier. Plan a lot, and don't overcommit the first year," he suggests. "I tell growers that I don't care about selling them a lot of seed. I want to sell them seed for a lot of years."

SEVEN COVER CROP QUESTIONS

Want to put your soils under cover? Oregon cover crop seed grower Nick Bowers starts by asking growers these questions:

-- When will you be able to plant? Different cover crops have different planting windows.

-- How will you plant your cover crop? Airplane, overseeder, drill, broadcast seeding -- there is no wrong answer, but have at least one option if your first choice doesn't work.

-- How many acres do you plan to plant the first year? Plant enough acres that you have to manage it but not too many to become discouraged.

-- Is overwintering cover important? How cold does it get? If soils are erodible, overwintering the right crops can be important (radish holes in the spring on a hillside are not good).

-- Do you want to produce or scavenge nitrogen (N)? If you want to produce N with a legume (crimson clover, for example), understand that you may have to let it flower before it will produce N.

-- Will you need to retrofit your planter because of increased cover crop residue? Maybe, depending on the type of cover and soil conditions.

-- What do you intend to plant following the cover crop?

Pamela Smith can be reached at pamela.smith@dtn.com

Follow Pamela Smith on Twitter @PamSmithDTN

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