By Elizabeth Schultheis and Karen Renner et.al.
Michigan farmers grow a wide diversity of cash crops, and the state is among the leaders in crop diversity. Fruit, vegetable, potato, sugarbeet, dry bean and cucumber farmers have been embracing the use the use of cover crops on their farms for years. However, corn, soybean and forage systems still make up 75% of the cropland acres in the state. To increase adoption of cover crops, farmers need new methods to integrate their use into corn-soybean systems and reap the soil health benefits of this practice.
Karen Renner, a professor in the Michigan State University
Plant, Soils and Microbial Sciences Department and graduate student Aaron Brooker have been conducting research into interseeding cover crops into corn between the V1 and V7 growth stages. Previous years’ research found the use of cover crops does not reduce corn yield, and is an effective strategy to improve soil health and suppress winter annual weeds.
Their current work builds on this research and looked at different seeding rates and different cover crop mixtures.
Source : msu.edu