This week’s podcast, sponsored by Yetter Equipment, features an interview with Mike Witt, a field agronomist with Iowa State University Extension. Witt discusses several areas of cover crop research, including comparing 30 and 60-inch rows, interseeding cover crops, weed suppression, and grazing cover crops.

Penn State researchers, in a recent study, were surprised to learn that they could take the exact same number of seeds from the same plants, put them in agricultural fields across the Mid-Atlantic region and get profoundly different stands of cover crops a few months later. The study came to be known as “‘farm-tuning’ cover crop mixtures,” noted researcher Jason Kaye, professor of soil biogeochemistry, who added that the findings are significant because they show the need to customize cover crop mixes to achieve desired ecosystem services, depending on soil and climatic conditions.

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.

University of Georgia researchers are working on natural solutions to weed problems in row crops as government regulations of chemical herbicides grow stricter. Earlier in June, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals pulled registrations for the use of all dicamba products for row-crop production. Read more in this article from Southeast AgNet.

Due to the increased demand for efficiency, farmers have had to pull more resources from the soil to make sure their production practices are as efficient as possible. The extra demand for resources from the soil has led to a decrease in overall soil health. Read more in this article from the Herald Journal News (Logan, UT).

As interest and integration of cover crops accelerate, the industry has been challenged in its ability to provide easy to access, comprehensive information. Recently, cover crop application company GO SEED developed the Cover Crop Information Map to provide a free, centralized platform for knowledge exchange.

Researchers with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture are conducting experimental trials that may help the state’s watermelon growers improve their yields while improving the soil and reducing pest pressure, according to a press release from University of Arkansas Extension.

Most information on cover crops in books and even from some farmer speakers indicates low carbon-to-nitrogen ratios mean nitrogen will be released to the cover crop. But some research North Dakota State University Extension is finding otherwise.

A long-term study by Kansas State University researchers looking at the value of cover crops seeded in a no-till rotation with wheat, sorghum and soybeans found covers have definite advantages when they're used properly by farmers.

In this podcast the Holtwood, Pa., grower and Cover Crop Coach will discuss many factors that affect winter hardiness ratings, including planting date, temperatures, snow cover, wind chill, freeze-thaw cycles and more.