Cover crops are making a difference to improve soil health and water quality. Dairy Stream host Mike Austin talks with Jim Isermann, Illinois and Wisconsin field manager of the Soil Health Partnership, and Ken Rosenow, owner of Cedar Home Farms about the cover crop benefits, recommendations for beginners, challenges and more.
Understanding the basics and challenges of cover crops
Cropping System: Soybean
Regenerative farming: A systematic approach to reducing your carbon footprint
Farmers will be a key player in improving our climate. Dairy Stream host Mike Austin talks with Rick Clark, a 5th generation farmer from Williamsport, Indiana, about how farmers can reduce their carbon footprint by using conservation practices, how carbon should be measured and how to reduce input cost. He also offers advice on how […]
Planting Soybeans Green Into Cereal Rye Cover Crop
Learn the why and how of planting soybeans into a green cereal rye cover crop from Practical Farmers of Iowa members! This video includes interviews with Rachel Amundson of Osage, Iowa; Nathan Anderson of Aurelia, Iowa; Jon Bakehouse of Hastings, Iowa; Nick Smith of Epworth, Iowa; and Will Cannon of Prairie City, Iowa.
Corn Planter Setup for Planting Green
Will Cannon of Prairie City, Iowa shares practical tips on his planter setup for planting corn into a living cereal rye cover crop. He gives a tour of his corn planter and talks floating row cleaners, no-till coulters, spiked closing wheels, drag chains, and more. He also shows how he makes adjustments in the field […]
Two for One: Cover Crop Seeding Equipment to Save Passes
Coupling cover crop seeding with another equipment pass offers a promising way to cut application costs and scale up acres. Learn from these panelists about the innovative ways they are modifying their machinery: an air seeder mounted onto a vertical tillage implement, a Gandy box mounted on a combine head and the Drill Combine. Max […]
Stock Cropping: Raising Crops and Livestock Simultaneously in the Same Field
Stock cropping is a regenerative agricultural system that raises row crops with livestock simultaneously in the field. In this session, you learn how Zack Smith raises pigs, sheep and goats in a mobile, autonomous barn that has unique attributes, including catching rainwater for animal use. The barn moves through 20- foot strips of cover crops […]
Economic Opportunities Outside of the Box
Thinking outside the box about a farm’s economics can lead to opportunities, including those created by climate-smart agriculture. Michael Morrow, executive director of the Indiana Farmers Union and land steward who farms with his family, and Hans Schmitz, Conservation Agronomist for the Conservation Cropping Systems Initiative, dive into adopting climate-smart strategies, from carbon markets and […]
Combines, Crop Residue, and Cover Crops
Saving time is critical during fall harvest. So is managing residue to ensure an even template for the following season’s crops. In this episode, southwestern Indiana farmer Ray McCormick and Needham Ag Technologies’ Phil Needham had called in to the podcast earlier in the spring to discuss the importance of uniform residue spread for even […]
Cover Crops in the River Bottoms?!
Everyone knows you can’t use cover crops in river bottoms, right? WRONG! Ray McCormick, Knox County, Indiana, farms about 1000 acres of river bottom farmland and uses cover crops on every acre. He is joined by CCSI Director Lisa Holscher to talk about the benefits and challenges of this practice.
Insects and Soil Health
It turns out that a discussion about insects and soil health isn’t just a discussion about how insects affect soil health. It’s also about how the disappearance of beneficial insects is affecting the health of plants, wildlife, livestock, crops, rural communities, and ourselves. Jonathan Lundgren, founder and director of Ecdysis Foundation, trains future scientists and […]