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Red clover...the forgotten cover crop

11/26/2020
Red clover...the forgotten cover cropWith this nearly prefect fall we have had, a lot of wheat has gone in across the country side. Where there is wheat, there are cover crops. Picking a cover crop strategy that fits into your operation and one that lines up with your cover crop goal is perceived as being complicated. 

The great thing about cover crops is it doesn’t have to be complicated, cost a lot, or require a lot of extra equipment. For example, let’s look at our grower, we will call him Bob. Bob is a 1000 acre cash cropper in Lambton with a crop rotation of corn, soybeans, soybeans, soybeans, winter wheat. Between what Bob has been reading in the Ontario Farmer and the talk at the coffee shop, he is wondering if he is falling behind and not keeping up with the industry when it comes to using cover crops.

Bob sits down with his Crop Sales Specialist to make a plan, to make the most of his cover crops.

Step 1: Goal of the cover crop

Let’s first start by looking at the benefits of using a cover crop in general:

  • Soil Builder
  • Pest Management
  • Erosion Fighter
  • Nitrogen Source
  • Nitrogen Scavenger
  • Compaction Management

From that list, Bob picks the top three things he wants the cover crop to do for his farm: soil builder, erosion fighter and, since he has corn in his rotation, nitrogen source.

Step 2: Type and timing of cover crop

Now that we know what Bob wants to get out of the cover crop, how does he fit it into his rotation and with what type of cover crop?

To do this, Bob and his Crop Sales Specialist take a look at the Midwest Cover Crops Council Selector Tools (https://mccc.msu.edu/covercroptool/). Bob goes with winter wheat as the crop to do the cover crop in because it works for this rotation.

Figure 1 shows Bob’s results from the Selector Tools. You will see that there are very few choices that will meet all three goals. The red clover is a very good soil erosion fighter and is at the top for soil building and nitrogen source. A good stand of clover, (40 cm high), when ploughed down, can give you 45 lbs/ac of nitrogen credit for the following year’s corn. Unlike oats and radish, red clover is frost-seeded and is well established when the wheat comes off. Therefore, there is less risk of not being able to establish other cover crops in a dry August.

MidwestCoverCropsCouncil_SelectorTool.png

Figure 1: Midwest Cover Crop Council Selector Tool.

Step 3: Seed and application

In Ontario, there are two types of red clover; double-cut and single-cut. Bob is going to frost-seed double-cut because it will mature two weeks sooner than the single-cut clover. 

Step 4: Herbicide plan

Most of the herbicides that are used on wheat in-crop will kill the red clover, so it is important to plan out what you are going to spray with beforehand. Buctril M from Bayer is safe to spray on under-seeded red clover. However, this product does have its limitations when it comes to hard to control broadleaf weeds, i.e. fleabane. 

Step 5: Termination of the cover crop

Red clover will not die over winter and therefore must be terminated. This can be done by killing it off with herbicides. However, in this case, Bob wants the N credit for his corn the following year. It’s like free nitrogen! So with that decision in mind, Bob will plough down the red clover in the fall.

Talk to your local Wanstead Farmers Co-operative Crop Sales Specialist to set up an effective cover crop plan for your farm today!

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