While combines are rolling across the country, one farmer is reflecting on the growing season.
The Agronomy Manager for Holsum Dairies says that while he could not make it rain, he wished cover crops were done differently.
According to John Vandenboom, “This winter rye, I think is a great tool. I think it’s great in soil health; I think it’s fantastic to have growing. It does have to be managed very closely because, this year we saw if a field was allowed to let that winter rye grow, it did suck a lot of the moisture out and, hindsight being 20/20, now we know it was going to be dry. But, before that, you didn’t think it was going to be that dry. It definitely made a difference if that rye was terminated early enough and it did not suck out as much moisture from the ground and we saw a huge difference between rye that was allowed to grow and use that soil moisture and then the crop following did not have enough to grow versus ones that were terminated earlier.”
If crops were not planted directly in the soil moisture this season, the farmer said there was a ton of variability in emergence.
