This week’s podcast features three Indiana farmers as they discuss planting cover crops with sweet corn, how no-tilling works in different soil types, retaining moisture with cover crops, and more.

Livestock market complications that reduce calf sales can cause unexpected forage demands. Droughts can compound the problem leading to forage deficiencies, while forage shortages can cause poor animal performance, overgrazed and degraded pastures, and increased expenses. Read more in this article from Southeast AgNet.

The Lion King is one of my favorite Disney movies. One of the key principles of the story is the concept of the “circle of life” — how everything in nature is interconnected. Science has shown us that it’s true.

This video from Iowa Learning Farms discusses the many functions of cover crops, how cover crops help growers better utilize time and resources, the main categories of cover crops, and much more.

In this podcast from Stroud Water Research Center, host Scott LaMar discusses soil health with Lisa Blazure, Stroud Water Research Center soil health coordinator; Jim Hershey, president of the Pennsylvania No-Till Alliance and Lancaster County, PA, farmer; and Steve Groff, cover crop expert and farmer, also in Lancaster County, PA.

Summer is nearing its end and it is time to plant cover crops. Extension agronomist Sjoerd Duiker says many cover crops need to be planted early to derive the substantial benefits. Read more in this article from Lancaster Farming.

According to a recent survey, Indiana farmers planted 950,000 acres of cover crops in 2019. Cover crops are known for their environmental benefits and, with the exception of corn and soybeans, are planted on more acres than any other commodity crop in Indiana.

Populations of true armyworm (Mythimna unipuncta) exceeding economic thresholds have been reported in Minnesota. Be sure to scout corn that was planted into a grass cover crop or where dense grassy weeds were controlled post-emerge. Read more in this article from the Faribault Daily News (Faribault, MN).

The university, in partnership, with the University of California at Davis; University of Minnesota; The Organic Center in Washington, D.C.; and the USDA-Agricultural Research Service in Beltsville, Maryland, were collectively awarded a nearly $1 million grant to “investigate the benefits of livestock integration through cover-crop grazing on bacterial population dynamics, food safety, and soil and environmental health,” said Dr. Fawzy Hashem, a research associate professor in the university’s Department of Agriculture, Food and Resource Sciences. Read more in this article from Lancaster Farming.

In this webinar, learn more about how to make a plan for your cover crops, the pros and cons of various cover crop seeding methods, how to select a cover crop seed species, and more.