Farmers around the world are keen to protect their most important asset: their soil. The soil supports and enriches their crops. But the relatively thin layer of topsoil can readily wash away into streams, carrying unwanted nutrients with it. Read more in this article from the American Society of Agronomy.

Dairy operations typically have one primary goal: make as much milk as possible, since that is the product they are paid for. Miltrim Farms, a dairy based in Athens, Wis., seeks to not just produce large quantities of milk, but also to be good environmental stewards of the land and water.

In this video from University of Arkansas Extension, find out how different types of cover crop work together in cover crop mixes to improve the soil, how cover crop mixes can maximize cash crops, how to choose cover crop species for a mix, and more.

Due to popular demand, the editors of Cover Crop Strategies are pleased to present a fall edition of the National Cover Crop Summit. This free, 2-day virtual event on Nov. 17-18 will feature 6 sessions sharing ideas, tips and information from crop industry experts and growers who have experience using cover crops to maximize economic and soil-health building benefits.

Harvest season is a busy time. There is so much for a grower to organize, manage and stay on top of that adding one more thing during the season — like seeding cover crops — may seem way too daunting.

Indiana growers have shown increased interest in utilizing cover crops in our corn and soybean production systems over the last decade. Marcelo Zimmer and Bill Johnson, Purdue weed specialists, have also noted there has been increased use of soil residual herbicides to help manage herbicide-resistant weeds such as marestail (horseweed), waterhemp, and giant ragweed. Read more in this article from KPC News.

In this video from University of Arkansas Extension, learn about the keys to achieving a good cover crop stand, the importance of correct seeding rate, and how to use your cover crop goals to determine the timing of cover crop seeding.

A few wheat fields scouted this summer were found with volunteer rye infested with ergot. It is becoming more common to see cereal rye being grown as a cover crop or for seed for the cover crop market. Read more in this article from South Dakota State University Extension.

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.

Some of our fields looked really scruffy, like stands of forgotten, overgrown brush that had given up the ghost and turned that pale, beige color of dead foliage we become so familiar with, and bored of, through the long months of winter. Only the early signs of small, emerging spikes of greenery in rows suggested that the fields had not been forgotten. Read more in this article from Lancaster Farming.