Field Check: Perennial Cover Crops and Baling

In this episode we talk about full season and perennial cover crops. These are great options in not only prevent plant situations, but also trying to manage the health of saline soils. As we’ve done on several episodes of this season of Field Check, we will also highlight the agronomic, logistical, and safety considerations when growing these types of cover crops. Assistant professor and soil health extension specialist Dr. Abbey Wick, said she has been expecting a lot of prevented planting acres this year.

“I think farmers are working as hard as they can as quickly as they can to get crops in the field, but some of those areas, or some of those fields are just gonna be ones that they're not gonna get to. And so in that case, we really wanna encourage a full season cover crop to manage that field just like you would with a cash crop.” - Dr. Abbey Wick

Abbey recommends looking at the NDSU Soil Health Cover Crop Booklet and the Grazing Cover Crop Booklet for more insight and information into this process. Dr. Kevin Sedivec, who as many of you know is a professor of range science at NDSU, says to prioritize soil health first when selecting full season cover crops. He also recommends considering whether you’ll be leaving it idle, grazing it or haying it.

“We should always think of soil health first. If I can create a food base to enhance the soils, I can then tweak that to make it good for livestock.” - Dr. Kevin Sedivec

Kevin highlights that if bailing is selected you need to understand that you are removing carbon from your ecosystem. He says there is a balance to be considered and achieved with regard to how much carbon you are adding with manure from livestock and how much you are removing with bailing. If you do decide to bail your cover crops, there are some really important safety considerations to also keep in mind. NDSU extension farm and ranch safety coordinator. Angie Johnson says it's especially important to remember safe practices when operating baling equipment.

“There are so many moving parts, whether you've got a belt baler, a chain baler, or a roller baler. With all of those rotating parts, you have extra areas where we call pinch points or rat points, so areas where you can get your fingers or limbs in some pretty serious danger. And so focus on reading that operator's manual on how you perform maintenance.” - Angie Johnson

Follow the link www.NDFieldCheck.com to participate in our next question and answer segment to share your questions and get them answered by the experts!

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Soil Sense Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.