Planting time is also a time for terminating cover crops, and that’s the topic for the latest CCSI-HAT Soil Health Podcast. Kosciusko County farmer Jamie Scott and Purdue Professor of Weed Science Bill Johnson discuss scouting and troubleshooting cover crop termination issues. They discuss the need for patience to avoid poor termination and expensive resprays. […]
Scouting and Troubleshooting Cover Crop Termination Issues
Cropping System: Soybean
Irrigation Efficiency and Soil Moisture
Betsy Bower, a Ceres Solutions Co-op Agronomist, and Mark Kingma, a farmer in NW Indiana and board member of the IASWCD, talk about irrigation system efficiency, the tools used for measure moisture, and the benefits of soil health systems for irrigation and water use efficiency. Kingma uses moisture sensors to manage water applications and they […]
The Bristle Brothers Sure Do Experiment
Mitchell and Brad Bristle have made a lot of big decisions at a young age. Their father died when they were young, then the hired man running their Michigan farm quit. So at ages 21 and 19, the Bristle Brothers took over. Now they’re in charge of 1,500 acres of wheat, corn, soybeans and alfalfa […]
The Genius of Prairie Strips
Farmers in 14 states have planted more than 14,000 acres of prairie strips to ease soil erosion. On this episode, Lisa Schulte Moore of Iowa State University explains the science behind planting native grasses and plants. “Prairie strips are oriented perpendicular to that flow of water,” she says. “It’s really about slowing that water down, […]
Ear to the Ground 269: Soil’s Stairway to Heaven
Mike Seifert is using cover cropping and no-till to make up for the soil damage caused by years of heavy metal tillage. One rainy night, his headlamp illuminated the results.
Ear to the Ground 267: Bringing Science Back to the Farm
A 4th grade experiment launched farmer Connor McCormick down a path of researching linkages between ecology, agricultural economics, and healthy soil.
Ear to the Ground 274: From Dirt to Diversity
How Scott and Amanda Holthaus are transforming corn-soybean ground into perennial pasture utilizing soil biology and the rotational grazing of diverse cover crops.
Planting No-Till Soybeans into Living Rye Cover Crop
Planting soybeans into living cereal rye cover crops — and terminating the cover crop after planting — lets you maximize the benefits of cover crops: more biomass for weed control, nutrient retention and organic matter. Jeremy Gustafson of Boone, Iowa no-tills soybeans into standing cereal rye cover crops, and in this video, he talks about […]
Crop Rotation for Weed Suppression
For farmers who raise organic corn and soybeans, weed control starts with crop rotation. Extended crop rotation and cover cropping are tools for weed management and soil and water conservation. In this video, farmers share their strategies for rotating crops to interrupt weed cycles and suppress weed growth and reproduction, through planting perennial crops like […]