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No till & a variety of cover crops builds soil, saves labor

A Jackson, Wisconsin farmer has found the combination of cover crops and no-till practices made a dramatic difference on his farm.

Ross Bishop been planting cover crops for 11 years and has been a no-till farmer in southern Wisconsin for 25 years.  Bishop tells Brownfield he’s seeing the benefits for both himself and the soil. “We’re able to do more acres because there’s a savings of labor and fuel, and all of that working the ground, but when I brought in the cover crops, you could see the biology of the soil got so much better.”

And, Bishop says he learned at a national no-till conference the benefits of using many different types of cover crops. “Radishes, we got the winter peas, cow peas.  We put a lot of the barley and oats in there and to make it pretty and keep the morale of the neighborhood, I put some sunflowers in.”

Bishop says the combination of no-till and cover crops is helping his bottom line. “You’re able to put sixty bucks in your pocket for not working it, plus you’re putting in the cover crops creating more nitrogen, so you’re able to get more return out of that corn and soybeans seem to green up quicker when we plant into the cover crops.” Bishop says in most cases, he hasn’t needed to apply much additional nitrogen after cover crops unless there’s a lot of corn stubble, and around 150 units of nitrogen is delivering up to 220 bushels of corn per acre plus the savings from not working the ground.

Bishop says planting green into cereal rye or winter rye during the last two wet springs has helped get his crops in the field sooner. From Wisconsin Farm Technology Days