What cover crops work good before corn?

Question

We are very happy with cereal rye ahead of soybeans, but it seems to have a negative effect ahead of corn even if we terminate early. Have you had good luck planting any other kind of cover crop after soybeans ahead of corn? How do you seed it? Our primary goals would be to cover the soil to help increase water infiltration and build organic matter, but producing N or being able to graze cattle would be a plus.

Answer

Winter seeding you can use hairy vetch for a good bit of N, maybe mixed with a touch of rye, winter peas, maybe a dash of radish or rapeseed, oats or barley if you get the beans off early enough. Turnips and kale are good grazing too. In KS I bet even regular 4010 peas wouldn't winter kill until late Jan, giving you live cover most of the winter.

Spring seeding we're trying to seed as early as we can into frozen ground a mix of oats, peas, and rapeseed. Not everything in there "produces" N, but think of it like a cow feed. Terminated young enough and it will be high in crude protein, and that will feed the soil and corn as well as a cow, even if it's not an official N "credit."

Look up Green Cover Seed. I've heard they do a great job helping folk out, and they are more in your area than I am. Their cover crop calculator is free and no strings attached too. It can help narrow down ideas based on goals. We use it all the time. https://smartmix.greencoverseed.com/

Let me know if you have more questions. I can look up the rates we've used in the past for some of these mixes.

Answer

I’m curious too about different mixes. I’m bound by a couple contracts to seed cc on some eqip acres. There of course you have to meet a criteria some many warm seasons so many cool seasons so many grasses and so on. I would like to find a replacement for the rye it is the heaviest concentration in my blends. Triticale?

Answer

These may offer some answers on issues with corn after cereal rye. The first is university research. The second is farmer experience and advice.
https://www.covercropstrategies.com/articles/1413-video-optimizing-corn-yields-after-cereal-rye?utm_source=omail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekly&utm_content=ccs&oly_enc_id=4680E4278156I1Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1rS6pX-PuA

Answer

We have used RTK NH 3 on live rye in spring and then planted on top of these pseudo strip till rows. If rye is big terminate pre plant. Last 2 years fall rye was slow to get going so planted in 15” rye and then terminated. We dribble 5 gal 32% and 5 gal ammonium thiosol with planter split 3 inches off  row.  We don’t see any of the allelopathic effect on early corn growth.

Answer

We’ve been drilling it immediately after harvest. It seems that where the rye was we don’t get quite as good of a stand and it seems to slow it down a little. We had a perfect kill well before planting and put down 80 units of 32% with the planter.

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What cover crops work good before corn?

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