Cover crops benefit from warmth, moisture

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This article was published 29/09/2023 (747 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With warm daytime temperatures and mild nights this month, cover crops, which are designed to keep a living root in the ground for as long as possible while covering the soil from erosion, are flourishing in some areas of Manitoba.

It has been the province’s longest growing season since 1977, and a few significant downfalls of rain have also been very helpful for cover crops, such as fall rye and other cereals.

Many farmers were worried that cover crops would not be able to grow earlier in the season due to the exceptionally dry conditions experienced this winter, says Callum Morrison, a crop production extension specialist with Manitoba Agriculture.

“I think it’s an example of how farmers need to be flexible and how there will be different opportunities for growing cover crops every year.”

The prolonged 2023 growing season might end up being a key component in the top five warmest Septembers of all time, Morrison said, adding he has seen a lot of winter wheat and fall rye emerging well, and canola and cereals growing strong.

Ryan Canart, who oversees the delivery of three different producer-focused cover crop incentive programs within the Assiniboine West Watershed District, has seem similar instances on some fields in Westman.

Canart manages Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s On Farm Climate Action Fund through the Manitoba Association of Watershed Prairie Watersheds Climate Program and is also the head of Alternative Land Use Services’ Growing Roots Program and the MFGA’s Conservation Trust, a two-year project that focuses on soil health and cover crops in the Souris River Watershed District and the Central Assiniboine Watershed District.

The warm September much of Westman has experienced has promoted plant growth and photosynthesis, which improves overall soil health for cover crops, many of which are used to integrate livestock grazing, Canart says.

“Annually seeded cover crops are providing the soil life with continued food sources this fall. With the above-average temperatures, green plants are able to continue to convert sunlight to sugar and further support the soil rebuilding processes.”

Cover crops are designed to protect the soil from erosion while adding nutrients and keeping a root in the ground for as long as possible for soil health benefits and weed and pest control. In some cases, cover crops can be grazed, though most are planted to never be harvested and are finished by the onset of cold weather to become a nutrient-rich mulch for the fields.

While the sunshine and warm nights have been great for extending the growing season, rain and moisture has been the real benefit, says Neil Zalluski, who delivers the MFGA’s Conservation Trust program and manages the Central Assiniboine Watershed District.

Zalluski says finding the right timing and field system to plant cover crops is also important. Intercropping — growing a crop amongst plants of a different kind, usually in the space between rows — is one way some farmers can plant cover crops into annual crops halfway through the growing season. Those cover crops can the be used to promote extended livestock grazing.

“This incorporates livestock into annual cropping plans as the livestock are put onto fields post-harvest of the primary crop,” Zalluski said. “As the livestock are grazing the cover crop, they are benefiting the soil health and providing nutrients into the system in a way that might reduce next year’s crop inputs.”

Timing is everything when it comes to cover crops, says Dean Brooker, who runs water projects for the MFGA and the Prairie Watershed Climate Program. Part of the watershed district has seen well-tied amounts of precipitation and in those areas, cover crops are reaping the benefits of moisture and frost-free days, he said.

“With the soil-health programs we are delivering, this type of weather is exactly what we are all hoping for in our planning stages.”

Canart, Zalluski and Brooker will be soil sampling and surveying farmers as part of their projects and expect to have more information this winter regarding next year’s projects.

The Province of Manitoba’s latest crop report, released on Tuesday, said harvest progress sits at 76 per cent complete across the province, which is ahead of the five-year average of 64 per cent. Harvest continues in spring and cereal crops, with barley and oats at 98 per cent complete, and spring wheat at 97 per cent complete. Overall, cereal crops remain in fair to mostly good condition.

Many corn fields have reached maturity and are drying down, and grain corn harvest has started. The canola harvest continues, with around 78 per cent of acres harvested across the province.

The province says producers should scout their fields for weeds that have escaped control, as waterhemp has been found in the central and eastern regions of the province. Producers should seek identification of any unusual pigweeds in their fields.

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