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Minnesota farmer trying cover crops for first time

A farmer in south-central Minnesota is trying cover crops for the first time.

Sam Ziegler of Good Thunder says he’s looking to improve water permeation and reduce soil erosion.

“We saw it pretty clear here just the other day of how much wind blew dirt and corn stalks and stuff around, and if there’s a way to put a cover out in those fields you could stand right by them and there’s not a single corn stalk flying through the air right there. But you go a half mile down the road and another field (with no cover crop) where dirt was blowing.”

He tells Brownfield seeding a cover in the fall meant having to do less tillage, and they hired someone to custom apply the seed.

“We did strip-till on what was going to corn because I was a little nervous to go straight into the rye, and I think that worked pretty well. I’m pretty happy with it.”

Ziegler is anxious to see how effectively his burndown herbicide terminates the cover crop, and how yields this fall might be impacted.