A common question when incorporating cover crops into a production system is, will the cover crop interfere with the performance of residual herbicides included with the burndown treatment? This article from Iowa State University Extension will discuss the fate of residual herbicides applied to crop residue and living cover crops, and how this may influence herbicide effectiveness.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) announced a new pilot program that enables farmers in the Prairie Pothole region to receive payments for planting cover crops on their land for three to five years. The new Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) Soil Health and Income Protection Program (SHIPP) pilot is available to producers in Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Careful manure management is a principle of farm profitability and environmental stewardship. Applying manure to land that has a cover crop is another practice that can help with nitrogen management.

We all know that one of the potential benefits of using cover crops is weed suppression, but do you know how cover crops actually provide weed suppression? There are a couple of ways: through blocking sunlight from reaching weed seeds, and also allelopathy, as the cover crop plants produce a chemical that reduces weed seed germination.

Thinking about applying manure soon on fields where short-season crops like sweet corn or peas have already come off or will be harvested in the next few weeks? Consider planting a cover crop to hold the nutrients in place this fall and next spring, according to this article from University of Minnesota Extension.

USDA officials held a conference call on July 25 announcing further details of the $16 billion package to support American farmers. One of the highlights was new information on the Market Facilitation Program (MFP).

In the first of this two-part Strip-Till Farmer podcast series, bought to you by Topcon Agriculture, we're joined by retired ag engineer Jack Boyer who knows a successful marriage of strip-till and cover crops takes work and a willingness to learn from mistakes, while also celebrating the successes.

Lessiter Media, publishers of No-Till Farmer and Strip-Till Farmer, has announced the launch of new website and event dedicated to providing farmers with practical tips and information on managing cover crops to improve their soil resource, protect the environment and enhance on-farm profitability.