What is in this article?:
- Blow Your Cover | Homemade Seeder Gives Cover Crops a Head Start
- Agronomic benefits
Beyond the engineering marvels of this machine, it offers the solid agronomic benefits of earlier cover-crop establishment.
“The challenge in corn and soybeans is establishing cover crops before frost, especially the legumes,” says David Wilson, King’s Agriseeds agronomist. “You want to establish cover crop earlier in the growing season when the crop is still metabolizing nitrogen,” Wilson says. “Otherwise, by the time corn hits black-layer stage, that’s not happening, and the mineralized soil nitrates leach below the root zone where it’s wasted.
“If we wait to seed cover crops until corn is harvested, the only option that late in the fall is annual winter rye for cold soil temperatures. This type of seeder should fit better with crops’ nutrient cycling.
“Previous generations knew this. Some of them
seeded medium red-clover cover crops by hand from horseback among midseason corn,” Wilson says.
To see a video and more information on this Skyboy, see http://tinyurl.com/CSDcover.
Late November 2010