An agronomist says the dry fall has made seeding cover crops a challenge.

Ryan Gentle, who covers Illinois with Wyffels Hybrids, says some farmers timed it right.

“If you’re early enough to do it, like maybe after silage early on, and we caught that half inch of rain, some of those fields look pretty nice.” He says, “They’re coming up, but anything that’s been seeded since the end of September is just definitely still laying there.”

Travis Meteer, beef specialist with the University of Illinois Extension, tells Brownfield many cattle producers have come to rely on fall covers.

“It’s become part of their system, and not only have they adopted it, but it’s something that they do every year.” He says, “But I think the lack of moisture really hurts our ability to grow a bunch of forage.”

He says there’s still time to plant some species of cover crops.

“And the bulk of the growth from cereal rye, but also wheat and triticale, would be in the spring. So for many producers, really their target is for early spring grazing,” he says.

Gentle says forecasts call for better chances of rain over the next few weeks which would help establish any late fall planted cover crops.

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