Cover crop rye

It's a learning experience, every year is different. I have 70 acres of sandy hill ground prone to erosion. I like the cover crop to protect the soil and it helps hold moisture thru the season. Long ago, I was told to kill the rye by April 15 and have always got it sprayed close to then and no till corn around the 1st of May. I'm still trying to find a good way to get nitrogen on corn. I like side dressing NH3 best, but it really murders the end rows and now I have Roundup resistant waterhemp coming on so I thought I would try having the roundup sprayed on with liquid N. CPS put me off taking care of the big farmers and didn't get mine sprayed until May 3. The rye had gotten pretty tall by then and it was slow dying out, so I took the flail shredder and mowed the rye off so I could plant corn. Not sure how it will turn out, but I got along better planting where I mowed it close to the ground as opposed to leaving a high stubble. I had trouble seeing the mark, so I wrapped a log chain around each marker arm for weight, that helped a lot! It rained .8" on May 13 and I started planting corn on May 17 and finished on the 18th and got it sprayed. It was plenty wet but it was time to plant, so I went ahead. I was afraid that the rows would dry out quickly but they didn't. The corn is up enough to row it thru the stubble now and looks good. I'll post more pictures thru the year so you can see how it turns out. Chris

I don't see how it is going to work by spraying the N. over the top. I side dress nh-3 and never felt when everything was said and done that it hurts the much yield on the ends. I would think what ever form of N. you use, it will have to be incorporated.

I use to spray N over the top. yes, you lose some, but it never failed me. i now harvest the rye about may 20 and then plant soybeans.

Sort of with this topic, I like the idea of Rye for a cover crop, although not many use it anymore..I heard a story about a guy up near Toledo Ohio that had a good stand of Rye seeded into a field that was well tilled and had been deep tiled (don't know how deep), and the rye roots plugged his tile completely to where it quit working...I have never heard or thought this could happen,,has any of you got any input on that??

Here in Maryland, the state pays us to plant cover crops, such as rye, wheat, and crimson clovers, to name a few. We burn it off in the spring and no till into it. I would guess that 90% of the ground here is planted to covers. The soil gets softer over a few years and the yields have been very good with little or no erosion. Most of us are convinced it's a good practice....

Back in the 70's some around here would build a little platform on the back of the combine to hold a few bags of Rye, and have a 12 volt seeder mounted on the bonnet, letting it come on and off with the header switch,,it sorta worked out okay with 4-6 row heads..