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“I've seeded rye every month except for January, and I've had it grow every time.”
— Mike Unruh, Grower, Winona, Minn.
In this episode of the Cover Crop Strategies podcast, brought to you by Montag Manufacturing, listen to a conversation with grower and cover crop seeding professional, Mike Unruh, as he talks about three different ways to seed cover crops and explains why he disagrees with growers who say cover cropping in colder climates like Minnesota is too difficult.
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The Cover Crop Strategies podcast series is brought to you by Montag Manufacturing.
Montag precision metering equipment is helping producers achieve their yield goals while saving on seed and input costs. For establishing cover crops, Montag’s family of seed platform equipment adapts to a variety of major brand delivery systems that will conserve seed and nutrients along with soil and water. Explore new options for your production and conservation goals with your Montag dealer, visit www.Montagmfg.com or call Montag at (712) 517-2775.
Full Transcript
Mackane Vogel:
Welcome to the Cover Crop Strategies Podcast, brought to you by Montag Manufacturing. I'm Mackane Vogel, Associate Editor at Cover Crop Strategies. In this episode, listen to a conversation with grower and cover crop seeding professional Mike Unruh, as he talks about three different ways to seed cover crops and explains why he disagrees with growers who say cover cropping in colder climates like Minnesota is too difficult.
All right, I'm here with Mike Unruh. Mike, if you want to just introduce yourself to our listeners real quick and just tell us a little bit about how you first got involved in agriculture. What are some of your earliest memories of ag?
Mike Unruh:
My name is Mike Unruh from Winona, Minnesota. I farm with my dad here in Winona: corn, soybeans, some cover crops, a little bit of alfalfa. Yeah, my first memories from agriculture, I guess, are from when I was a kid. Growing up, we had dairy cows, and we daried for a while and then sold out in 2001 and rented out the facilities. So I remember running Skid Loader when I was in kindergarten and always running equipment.
Mackane Vogel:
Awesome. I understand you guys got into cover crops somewhere around maybe 10 years ago. Does that sound about right?
Mike Unruh:
Yeah, kind of 2012. 13 is the one we remember a lot because that was a prevent plant year, so we put a five-way mix or a diverse mix in on the prevent plant takers. And following wherever we planted that mix, the next year's corn was some of the best corn we ever grew. So then dad started doing stuff with winter rye. He was no-tilling green back when that we were told that that can't be done. So he led the charge on it.
Mackane Vogel:
Do you remember what sparked your guys' interest in wanting to try cover crops? Was it a neighbor? Did you guys attend any kind of event? Or what was the initial thought of, hey, maybe we should try this?
Mike Unruh:
I don't know exactly why dad decided to go that route. I think he had read about it in a magazine or something at the time. But a big reason for him was the erosion. In Winona County here we're pretty steep, we got some highly erodible soils. He was sick of seeing soil washing, so he started with the rye to hold the soil, and then from there we just started learning more about what it was doing for our soil. We started running side-by-sides, and we were seeing corn doing really good behind it. So then we just kept pushing forward with it.
Mackane Vogel:
Let's talk a little bit about the region that you guys are in. I feel like hear a lot of, not just Minnesota farmers, but people that live in northern states, colder climates that often make the argument like, "Oh, cover crops no-till can't be done in these types of climates." What would you say to those kind of farmers that have that pessimistic attitude towards it?
Mike Unruh:
You got to go into it with an open mind. The hardest thing for people is when they're so focused on harvesting in the fall, they're like, "When are we going to have time to plant it?" That kind of thing 'cause you don't think you're going to get enough GDUs to get it to grow. But I've seeded rye, I think, every month except for January, and I've had it grow every time. There's one stage where I find it's very vulnerable when it first germinates, and then we get a really hard killing cold. That's when I'll lose a stand.
But otherwise, rye you can throw out whenever. I realize there's tons of other covers that we'd love to use, but then we have to adapt for our climate. We know that we can't be seeding radishes end of October because it's kind of a waste of money. So knowing what you can get to grow and what's pointless, I think, is a big part of it. But they grow small grains all the way up in Canada. So if we're talking small grains as a cover, you can grow it wherever.
Mackane Vogel:
Yeah, absolutely. Speaking of rye, what's been your experience with roller crimping rye? Has that been the most effective termination for you guys, or what would you say there?
Mike Unruh:
We did it one year as a trial. We're conventional I think for organic it has a lot of validity, but on the conventional side, I think it's great 'cause you can grow a high biomass cover crop, but you have to terminate the rye at the perfect stage during anthesis with that crimper. And that proved to be a little bit more challenging than we thought.
We had the beans already growing. We planted the beans at boot stage and then went into crimp when rye hit anthesis. If you plant those beans slightly too early, we learn though, they'll get pretty tall and leggy. And then when you roller crimp that rye down, it gets all wound up in the map. So I think it's effective. We had to use glyphosate to end up killing off the rye. I didn't get a good kill with the crimper, and we just haven't tried it again since.
Mackane Vogel:
We'll come back to the discussion in a moment. But first, I'd like to thank our sponsor, Montag Manufacturing, for supporting today's podcast. Montag Precision Metering Equipment is helping producers achieve their yield goals while saving on seed and input costs. For establishing cover crops, Montag's family of seed platform equipment adapts to a variety of major brand delivery systems that will conserve seed and nutrients along with soil and water.
Explore new options for your production and conservation goals with your Montag dealer. Visit montagmfg.com or call Montag at (712) 517-2775. And now, let's get back to the discussion with Mike Unruh. Let's talk a little bit about the different ways that you guys have tried seeding cover crops. What are those options that you've played around with, and what have you seen there?
Mike Unruh:
Yeah, it started... We used to use, we would VT the ground and then use a 12-foot old case drill, and that's how we applied everything. But we could only get maybe four to six acres an hour done, so it was pretty slow. So in 2019, I started a company called Undercover Cropping, and I bought a Kuhn CCX air seeder for the Kuhn VT. So we were doing the tillage and the seeding in one pass, because at that time we were still doing a lot of vertical tilling the ground, so to me, it made sense to combine them. And that's been working really well.
Now, since then, we've gone much more the no-till route. So for us, if I don't need to run that VT, I don't want to on our own ground. So since then I bought a Kuhn High Precision fertilizer spreader, the Axis 50 EMC, and it is incredibly precise. If I set rye for let's say 60 pounds an acre, it comes out at 59.7 pounds every time. So I've been extremely happy with that.
We're seeding it anywhere from 60 to 90 feet spread patterns on rye, so I can cover a lot of acres, do it quick. And then the way we've been doing it is just leaving it on top and letting the rain get the rye established.
If we're really worried about needing better seed-to-soil contact, then you could run the VT, lightly work the ground. That's what a lot of guys, if they custom hire me to seed for them and they have their own VT, we'll go out and spin it, and then they'll VT it in. Usually that's for guys that are trying to get a really good stand for forages for the dairies.
The third method is this last year I bought A DGI T40 drone. I needed something to fit the space for interceding into corn when it's tasseled. So I looked at the Hagie high clearance, but then for the kinds of fields we're running and stuff, I felt like the drone was a better fit. And I guess a really big part on the drone was more on the fungicide side. I can now control exactly when we need to put fungicide on if we're fighting tar spot, or maybe we've got pests coming in bad. I don't have to wait for a helicopter, so now it's all in our control.
Mackane Vogel:
What are the most common pests that you guys see in your region?
Mike Unruh:
The northern corn rootworm beetle has... It's interesting. We haven't seen it terrible on ours yet. But you don't have to go far away, and there's dairies or producers that are fighting northern corn rootworm beetle and triple stack corn with insecticide. So very high levels of resistance. As I said, we don't see it here yet, but between that and then army... We have had armyworm flights in. So now if we have an armyworm flight, I can take the drone out quick and use insecticide. I haven't had to do that yet, but it's another tool that we're ready for it, if it happens.
Mackane Vogel:
Yeah, nice to have that option for sure. I'm curious too, with your cover crop seeding business, is there a certain time of year that's extra busy, or are people asking you to seed cover crops all throughout the year? What's your busy season for that look like?
Mike Unruh:
Spring is fairly busy with seeding oats, that kind of work, and spring trip. Otherwise, the biggest one, the really big one, as soon as we start taking corn silage off in the fall, then it's pretty much nonstop through combining season. We're in a heavy dairy area, so a lot of guys... We do custom forage harvesting as well, so we'll come in and chop, and then a lot of guys will get the manure on. And then we try to get the cover crop on as soon as possible because a lot of the dairies that are growing it want it for forage, and our highest tonning forage usually comes when we can seed beginning part of September. The more growth we can get on it, the better, in the fall. So yeah, I'd say fall is extremely busy.
Mackane Vogel:
Have you, either on your own farm or with the business, have you had much experience with a frost seeding?
Mike Unruh:
Yeah, we frost seeded 20... I think I did it in 2020. And at that time, all I had was the VT, so I just loaded that thing up. There was six inches of snow, and I just kept it up in the air and drove through the snow. It worked. It worked. I think I seeded rye, and I think there was clover. And both the rye and the clover came. It doesn't get nearly as big as if you seed it in the fall. You got to be a little more patient in the spring. But it works as a way if you can't get it all done in the fall.
Mackane Vogel:
And this would be the time of year to do it for most people, right? Early March, would you say or?
Mike Unruh:
Yeah. This year, it's been so abnormally warm early on, but you're looking for those highs to get maybe up into the thirties or forties in the day and then maybe down in the twenties at night. And the theory is the freeze/thaw cycle worked that seed in the ground. I found, as long as you can get the seed out there, we get some rain, it's going to germinate and come.
But yeah, we seeded stuff, man, like the 25th of February here because it was so dry, and conditions were right. So we actually worked it into the ground for a customer. But just rye [inaudible 00:12:34].
Mackane Vogel:
Yeah. I appreciate you chatting with me. Before we go, I'll give you a chance to let people know where they can hit you up for the cover crop seeding business, if you're taking new customers or anything.
Mike Unruh:
Yeah, you can find me on Facebook, Unruh Cover Cropping, U-N-R-U-H, and then cover cropping. That's probably the best way. That's where I try to keep stuff posted, but I don't post as much as I should.
Mackane Vogel:
Sure. No worries. All right, well, thanks a lot, Mike. This has been fun.
Mike Unruh:
Thank you very much.
Mackane Vogel:
That's it for this episode of the Cover Crop Strategies Podcast. Thanks to Mike Unruh for that great discussion. The full transcript of this episode, as well as our archive of previous podcast episodes, are available at covercropstrategies.com/podcasts. Many thanks to our sponsor, Montag Manufacturing, for helping to make this cover crop podcast series possible. And from all of us here at Cover Crop Strategies, I'm Mackane Vogel. Thanks for listening and have a great day.
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