Should I Plant Cover Crops This Fall?

Plants won’t grow if it doesn’t rain.

The recent weather pattern suggests I should end this column right here.

But it’s supposed to rain, right? Isn’t that what the weatherman keeps saying?

I’m not convinced. But I haven’t lost hope. Especially for the pasture. Have you seen the cattle prices lately?

This poses a question for folks with livestock who might be short on hay: should you plant a cover crop this fall?

I’m scratching my head, too. I called Fayette County Agrilife Extension Agent Scott Willey this week to ask his opinion.

“Unless we get some moisture, you’re taking a lot of risk to start planting,” Willey said. “We keep hearing that we’re in a El Nino phase and we’re going to get some moisture this winter. But we’ve got to have some moisture this fall to get them up.”

Willey said a cover crop would be a great help to cattle raisers trying to stretch their hay supply. Cover crops also help to suppress winter weeds from growing.

“That kind of thing would be really helpful, but the challenge is moisture,” Willey said. “We need moisture to plant into and moisture shortly after we plant. But another challenge, if we do get some good heavy moisture, we could get a heavy crop of fall armyworms.”

These little caterpillars can strip a field of green oats in a matter of days.

“Insect pressure becomes an issue we have to be very observant about,” Willey said.

But what should you plant? Ryegrass? Oats? Wheat? Winter peas? Turnips? Radishes? All of the above?

“Diversity of plant species is always helpful,” Willey said. “It can help us hedge some things. What is that actual mix? It should be specific to soil types, goals, and what you are trying to do with that cover crop. When will those plants be ready to graze? How late can they be grazed? There’s a lot of factors that go into picking the plant species. Those are the biggest questions.”

Willey advises land owners to get their soil tested. He said the Fayette County AgriLife Office will soon announce details for a soil testing campaign. Land owners can use the soil test results when consulting with their seed supplier to determine what types of cover crops to plant.

Land owners should pay close attention to input costs – such as fuel and tractor use for preparing the soil, Willey said, especially this fall, considering the risks posed by the recent drought.

“A lot of prep isn’t necessary,” Willey said. “You get a better stand with some prep, but I worry about how dry everything is right now. Ryegrass is really good to over-seed. With oats and wheat, you need a lot more land prep – seed depth is really important, so you need a seed drill or something to get that seed down there. With ryegrass, a lot of it is broadcast.”

Last year I planted a mix of jumbo ryegrass and turnips at our place in Cozy Corner, but it was fairly late in the fall. An early freeze in December froze back a bunch of the turnips just as they were starting to sprout. Some of them survived, but I believe most of them would have made it through the cold snap if I had planted a few weeks earlier. I was quite surprised how well they thrived, especially considering that I did not apply any fertilizer. Once the survivors got big, they survived an even colder freeze that winter.

Willey said folks thinking about planting a cover crop should consider cold hardiness.

“They’re calling for another cold winter, potentially,” Willey said. “So cold-hardiness should come into the conversation again.”

Willey said land owners also need to pay attention to financial costs of planting cover crops.

“Sustainability is the buzzword,” Willey said. “We think about the social part of it and the environmental part of it. But the third part of it is financial. We’ve got to be able to make a profit. Calf prices are great right now, but input prices are just as high.”

He said planting inoculated legumes like winter peas can improve nitrogen levels in the soil, and thus lessen the need for fertilizer in the spring. But he again advised a soil test to ensure enough phosphorus and potassium are present for legumes to thrive.

“But it takes fuel and time to plant some of these cool season crops,” he said.

Landowners should consider all of these factors when deciding whether to plant a cover crop or which crops to plant. Willey, who also runs his own cow-calf operation, said he plans to invest in cover crops this fall.

“It’s definitely on the list for me to do,” Willey said. “I’m trying to stretch some hay. It’s not like we have an abundance of hay around here right now.”

I think I will, too. I’ll probably again plant a mix of ryegrass and turnips. but I want to add some winter peas and daikon radish to the mix. First, though, I need to fix the blown-out tire on the grain drill.