News

Northwest Iowa farmer’s first time using cover crops

A farmer in northwest Iowa seeded his first cover crop last fall.

Kelly Nieuwenhuis of Primghar says he’d been considering it for several years.

“And I’ve had friends that are doing it. Living in northern Iowa, it’s a little harder to get (cover crops) established. But last fall it worked out tremendous (because) for only the second time in my farming career I harvested corn in September.”

He tells Brownfield that made it possible to spread some cereal rye right after.

“And then a couple days later I got 2 1/2 inches of rain (and) I think every seed I threw out there grew. So I got a good cover crop established.”

Nieuwenhuis says he’ll no-till plant into half those acres and one-pass vertical till the other half with plans to share updates on social media throughout the growing season.