Cereal rye seeding rate and planting date

By Stephanie Karhoff and Elizabeth Hawkins

Cover crops can help slow erosion, suppress weeds, retain nitrogen, and increase organic matter. However, barriers to cover crop use remain. These include seed costs and timely fall establishment, but, if growers lower seeding rates to capture cost savings or if weather conditions delay establishment, do we still realize the environmental benefits of cover crops?

Thanks to funding from the Ohio Soybean Council, we evaluated three different cereal rye seeding rates and planting dates to better understand their impact on cover crop success and yield of the subsequent soybean crop. The field trial was conducted at Northwest Agricultural Research Station in Custar (Wood County) and Western Agricultural Research Station in South Charleston (Clark County) in 2023-24. Cereal rye was drilled at either 25, 50, or 75 pounds per acre at three different planting dates for a total of nine treatments. At each location, treatments were replicated four times and randomized to better separate real treatment differences from in-field variability.… Continue reading