Integrating winter cover crops in annual cropping systems can provide important conservation and crop production benefits at field and watershed scales. Yet, recent surveys indicate that greater than 60% of grain crop acres in PA remain fallow in winter. Regional grower surveys indicate that the primary constraint to adoption of winter cover cropping is poor establishment following late-harvested crops. Because of the limited time before winter to establish cover crops following grain corn or soybean harvest, farmers have indicated that the benefits of post-harvest cover crop seeding do not justify the associated costs. However, widespread interest in soil health has raised farmer awareness of alternative management practices, including interseeding cover crops into corn early in the growing season.
The Penn State Weed Science program participates in cover crop interseeding research conducted at PSU and across the Northeast region (Curran et al. 2018; Wallace et al. 2017; Caswell et al. 2019). Two broad challenges prevent expansion of cover crop interseeding practices in the Northeast. First, farmers are unwilling to invest resources to interseed cover crops without first-hand experience that demonstrates conservation and production benefits of interseeded cover crops will be consistently realized. Second, the performance of interseeded cover crops is a function of context-dependent interactions between climate, soil and crop management practices. Our project will utilize participatory research and education programs to support the development of regionally-specific cover crop interseeding BMPs.
We are currently leading a Northeast SARE funded project to address these challenges. Look for a project page, research updates, and management recommendations coming soon.