Relay-cropping cereal rye and soybeans provides as much, if not more, gains to soil health than rye as a cover crop alone, plus you can use the cereal rye for cover crop seed in the fall.
Relay-cropped soybeans see reduced crop yields compared to mono-cropped soybeans. However when Michael Vittetoe of Washington, IA compared profitability of relay-cropping rye and soybeans to the profitability of monocrop soybeans, he found that the relay cropping rye and soybeans out-profits the monocrop soybeans by $50-$76 per acre!
Watch Michael Vittetoe and Alec Amundson of Osage, IA describe the agronomics, economics and lessons learned of relay-cropping cereal rye and soybeans on their farms.
