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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