Cover crops are typically used by producers in dryland no-till cropping systems to improve soil health, reduce soil compaction, enhance nutrient cycling, improve soil structure, and improve water infiltration. Producers may be able to realize some income from cover crops by grazing or haying them. But is this a good idea or will it cancel out any benefit the cover crops would otherwise have on soil properties and residue cover?

Scott Shriver, one of Iowa's leading organic farmers, recently conducted research to determine optimal soybean row-width and seeding dates when roller-crimping cereal rye. The soybeans he planted the day of roller-crimping ultimately yielded higher than those planted 13 and 17 days before.

USDA's crop progress report for the week ended May 1 reported 14% of corn crops and 8% of soybeans have been planted.

Establishing sorghum-sudangrass in cool-season western wheatgrass pasture at the Kansas State Agricultural Research Center-Hays improved total forage production over two years, 2020-2021.

Two ongoing studies are measuring how much soil is being blown across different fields, and how much nutrients lost with wind erosion might cost farmers. Overall, preliminary data indicates that management makes a difference: leaving residue on a field or planting cover crops, and less aggressive tillage, can slow down soil movement.

In the past month, dust storms have been making headlines across the western United States. Blowing soil has created driving hazards due to low visibility, and accumulated wind-blown silt even forced boat ramp closures near Fort Pierre. The good news is that land can be managed to minimize erosion.

Wisconsin joined Illinois, Indiana and Iowa this month in offering a crop insurance discount for growers who plant cover crops. Meanwhile, restructuring to Illinois' conservation programs did not pass in Springfield.

Nitrate leaching is a major concern in coarse-textured agricultural soils because it can cause economic losses for farmers and contaminate groundwater. While some nitrate leaching may be inevitable when growing corn on sandy soils, there are several management strategies that can be implemented to limit nitrate loss. Here are some key takeaways from a recent five-year study looking at three major factors impacting nitrate leaching: drainage, nitrogen availability, and cropping system.

The recent cold temperatures experienced during 31 March – 14 April 2022 were enough to cause freeze damage to winter wheat in parts of Kansas. The actual freeze damage will be region-specific depending on crop growth stage and minimum temperatures (some regions had a worst combination of temperatures and crop growth stage) and, within a region, field specific owing to many individual aspects such as crop density, residue level, etc. While there is nothing that we can do immediately, growers can prioritize fields where they sample for freeze damage symptoms depending on conditions that were more likely to result in freeze damage.