This year’s earlier harvest means that we can get a head-start on 2021 crop production by seeding cover crops sooner. The earlier we can get our cover crops seeded, the greater the benefits we’ll reap, and one proven method of seeding cover crops is with a planter. Jon Bakehouse of Hastings, IA has outfitted a 30 foot Kinze 3600 split row planter with Seed Right plates to seed cereal rye ahead of soybeans.
The basics: Jon seeds a cereal rye cover crop in 15-inch rows, which complements his 15-inch soybean rows. Jon aims for 2-inch seeding depth, and seeds around 55 lbs/acre.