REAPING THE BENEFITS OF UNDER SEEDED RED COVER IN WHEAT

Feb 12, 2020

It's time to setup our 2020 crop plans! One of the most important things we can do is look at ways to improve the health of our soils while making our fields more productive.

Making crop plans for fields already planted into Winter Wheat is the next step to make sure we can optimize yields with proper inputs and improve soil health with cover crops.

Planting a cover crop such as red clover is one of the easiest ways to reap the benefits of this very common crop. Many of us have under seeded clover into our wheat crops in the past, some with excellent results and some not so great. Let’s go over the benefits clover has to offer from a soil health, rotational aspects as well some tips to help zero in on the proper time to plant, and the benefits clover adds to your crop rotation.

Picking the correct clover

The two main red clovers that are used are single cut and double cut. The seed will germinate well under lower temperature which makes it a great fit for frost seeding into your winter wheat stand in the early spring. Single cut is slower growing, takes approximately two weeks longer to mature than double-cut, does not flower in seeding year and is more drought tolerant. Double cut can also be a great for soil conditioning. When both clovers are left to grow until mid-October the differences in total biomass are negligible.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.