Selecting Cover Crops
UW-Madison Extension experts discuss selecting cover crops and questions that you should be to ask yourself to help clarify your goals for using cover crops.
Soils, Nutrient Management & Soil Health
Extension specialists and educators provide timely resources and information to help Wisconsin crop producers and their agricultural consultants manage crops efficiently and profitably.
Articles
Why cover crops?
Cover crops can provide many benefits for the soil in crop productions systems. Benefits can include conserving soil and water as well as improving the soil. Reduced Erosion An obvious effect of growing cover crops is covering the soil surface, which can significantly reduce the potential for wind and water erosion. This is particularly true […]
Planting Methods for Cover Crops
Interseeding (Drilling or broadcasting early season into standing crop) Establishing cover crops after corn and soybeans is a challenge in Wisconsin due to the minimal amount of growing season left after harvest. Interseeding a cover crop during the vegetative growth of these crops provides Wisconsin farmers a cover crop establishment method earlier in the season. […]
Cover crop options for planting after winter wheat
Wisconsin’s short growing season doesn’t provide a lot of time for growing cover crops. However, the early harvest of winter wheat allows an excellent window for cover crops to grow, protect the soil and provide other benefits. Cover crop recommendations typically change depending on where you are in Wisconsin but because of the early harvest […]
FAQs about liming in Wisconsin
Beginning in 2007, Wisconsin has a new lime recommendation program. Will this increase or decrease the lime rates that are being recommended? Neither. In some cases the recommendations may be a bit lower and in some cases higher, but the new system will more accurately assess the level of acidity in the soil and lead […]
