Cover Crop Strategies editors encounter a variety of articles, social media posts, podcasts and videos that offer a unique look at various aspects of our great agricultural industry. Here is our favorite content from the past week:

Seeding Cover Crops for the First Time

Join Farmer Woody as he spreads a wheat cover crop for the first time using a Case Trident while the rest of the crew runs soybean harvest, manure spreaders, and unloads pigs. He’s seeding it on at about 55 pounds per acre right after hog manure on fields where Grandpa cleaned the terraces, aiming to finish before rain arrives. Along the way he deals with a cracked screen mount, navigates soft spots in the field and talks through the cover crop program he enrolled in.

Making an Impact with Cover Crops

On this episode of the Land Network podcast, Lorie Woodward sits down with regenerative Iowa farmer and Leopold Conservation Award Winner Loran Steinlage. They discuss how innovative thinking, including the use of cover crops and crop stacking, reinvigorated Steinlage's family farm and now allows him to share his knowledge with farmers worldwide.

Reducing Nitrate Pollution with Cover Crops

Nutrient management expert Matthew Helmers has researched how certain land use practices can have a “disproportionate impact” when it comes to nitrate pollution reduction. He says it all starts with focusing on a simple mantra: “always be growing.”

Why to Grow Oats After Silage Harvest

In this quick YouTube short, Zach Hefty shares why he plants a cover crop of oats after silage harvest. The longer growing season for the oats allows for more plant and biomass development before winter arrives.


Drilling Cover Crops and Overcoming Challenges

Family Tradition Farms in southwest Indiana is committed to sustainable agriculture practices in order to leave the farm to the next generation better than it was. After harvest this fall, they've run into some challenges in seeding cover crops. On the first field of the day, the Case IH 5400 drill broke down. In this video, the farmer discusses why he chose to use a drill this year instead of broadcasting, and the benefits of doing so.

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