Whether you know it or not, Turner County farmers have a good reputation for their adoption of conservation tillage practices. Much of this is due to efforts in the past from dedicated farmers and extension agents; Scott Utley and Ronnie Barentine to be specific. Several years and two county agents later, I feel that we need to revisit cover crops in our research and extension efforts for the following reasons: A) the new county agent needs some hands-on experience B) We have younger growers that weren’t around when many of these efforts were taking place C) Some growers realize the benefits of a good cover crop but have gotten slack over the years and just need a good refresher. This trial was installed on a field that will be strip-tilled into melons later this year.
We planted plots of the following mixes: rye, rye+vetch, and rye+tillage radish. Each plot was replicated 3 times. We are planning on using tillage to terminate the cover in 3 more plots this week to give us a control.
The photo on the left is of the rye+vetch mix. This mix looks very good. It will provide a dense matt for weed suppression along with some residual nitrogen from vetch since it is a legume.
The photo on the right is of the rye+tillage radish mix. Our tillage radishes did not fair very well in the cold temperatures we had this winter. They received a lot of cold injury. We still have 3-4 weeks of growth before we terminate this cover with an herbicide. The idea of the tillage radish is that the long tap root may penetrate a hard pan if present.
Stay tuned for more later on….
