cover crops basics - kaspar
TRANSCRIPT
MCCC Cover Crop Selector Tool
Tom Kaspar
USDA-ARS
National Laboratory
for Agriculture and
the Environment
Ames, Iowa
Dean Baas
Michigan State Univ.
Lead Scientist
MCCC Cover Crop
Selector Tool
Why do we need a “selector” tool?
• There are a lot of cover crop species
• There is a lot of confusing information
• Every state, every county, and every
rotation is different – climate varies
• Cover crops have small planting windows
• We don’t have a lot of experience
• To provide our best estimate at this time
• Framework for improving information as
we learn more
Selecting a Cover Crop
• What is your cash crop rotation?
• Where are you in your state?
• Does the cover crop overwinter?
• When and how can you plant?
• How fast does it grow? How much?
• Why are you planting a cover crop?
• What is the seed cost/acre?
Adapting the Tool to Each County
• Used the average 28ºF frost dates
• Incorporated information from MCP book
and other sources
• Assembled an “expert panel” for each
state
• Looked at what previous states had done
• Made our best guesses
• Planned to modify when “new” information
was available
http://www/sare/org/publications/covercrops/covercrops.pdf
Differences in Fall dates of 50% probability of occurrence of a 28ºF frost across Iowa:
NW (Lyon) to SE (Lee) Oct. 6 to Oct. 28 = 22 days
NE (Allamakee) to SW (Fremont) Oct. 16 to Oct. 20 = 4 days
NW (Lyon) to SW (Fremont) Oct. 6 to Oct. 20 = 14 days
NC (Winnebago) to SC (Wayne) Oct. 11 to Oct. 17 = 6 days
NE (Allamakee) to SE (Lee) Oct. 16 to Oct. 28 = 12 days
Story County Oct. 13