On this episode of the Cover Crop Strategies podcast, brought to you by La Crosse Seed, we’re headed to Davenport, IA to catch up with Robb Ewoldt, who’s the president of the Iowa Soybean Association. Ewoldt fills us in how the prestigious role is allowing him to make an impact not just in Iowa, but all over the globe.

Texas and Louisiana led the way among corn and soybean plantings, respectively.

Practical Farmers of Iowa has released a new cover crop app designed to help farmers easily locate cover crop seed, services and suppliers. The app, Find Cover Crops, is free to download and use, and is available in both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

Cover crops—which are typically added to a crop rotation in between two commodity or forage crops—provide living, seasonal soil cover with a variety of on-farm benefits, such as increased soil moisture capacity, improved nutrient cycling, and weed suppression. Cover crops can also provide public benefits by reducing sediment loss, nutrient runoff, and leaching; reducing flooding; and storing carbon in the soil. Read more in this article from USDA Economic Research Service.

Weed management is a year-round job, but producers take special care to make sound management decisions prior to planting, and that includes cover crop burndown. According to information from the Alabama Cooperative Extension System (ACES), Alabama Extension Weed Scientist David Russell offers suggestions for planting into a weed-free field and maintaining a clean corn crop throughout the growing season. Read more in this article from Southeast AgNet.

Before you start planting, check out this video from Iowa State University Extension. Program Specialist Levi Powell demonstrates what you need to look for on the closing wheels of your planter.

Find out a simple process to check the planter depth settings before heading to the field in this video from Iowa State University Extension. Proper depth when planting can increase planting accuracy.

Levi Powell with Iowa State University walks you through how to best calculate and set downforce pressure on your planter and how downforce can improve planting.

If you saw last week’s podcast, we were talking about planting cash crops into heavy covers. This week’s podcast is part 2 of that discussion! Pennsylvania cover crop expert Steve Groff talks about what equipment you need to plant into heavy covers, why residue cleaners are important during planting, what problems to expect when planting into heavy residue, and more.

If wet spring weather has kept you from being able to plant, you may end up planting green into heavy cover crops, according to Pennsylvania cover crop expert Steve Groff. Dealing with heavy cover crop residues is doable, but your success depends on using the right equipment and setting it the right way.