Spring planting is all but finished, according to USDA. However, for some Indiana farmers, their fields were green long before their row crop seed ever touched the ground.
Freshly tilled soil, perfectly pristine rows and dots of emerging plants as far as the eye can see is not how Owensville, Ind., farmer Aaron Krueger rolls.
“Last year was the first year we really began planting green into what I would call big covers,” says Krueger, who is in his mid-20’s and farming with his grandfather Ronald.
Planting green is when farmers seed into cover crops 5’ to 7’ tall, including cereal rye and legumes. Krueger then rolls or crimps the covers down ahead of the planter. The end result can, as he says, look a little messy.
“Crimping that cover down creates a nice mat for weed suppression for moisture retention,” Krueger says.
He’s found it also doesn’t hang up as much on the planter. As the flattened covers breakdown, the nutrients are returned to the soil.
“I sent off a sample a couple of weeks ago of the above-ground biomass to a lab in Nebraska and they ran an analysis on it for the nutrients,” Krueger says. “It actually came back that the biomass had about 70 lb. of nitrogen in it.”
Trying new things may seem logical for a young farmer like Krueger, but his grandfather is rolling right with him.
“At my age, it gets a little harder to make changes, but I’ve trusted my grandson,” said the elder Krueger. “It’s working for us.”
Ronald says last year, some of these fields had the best crops he’s ever seen grown.
“When he planted it, I thought there will never be a stand of corn in the field,” laughs Ronald remembering his doubts at the time. “I thought it can’t come through all of that, but it did.”
He ran the combine at the end of that season and the yield monitor confirmed their success. Krueger says one of the other benefits of heavy cover crops year after year is improved water infiltration, reduced soil loss as water draining into the ditches between their fields runs clear.
“It’s a real-life example of what can happen if you transition from a conventional operation to a more soil health and environmentally focused operation,” says Jerry Raynor, Indiana state conservationist with NRCS. “To see what Aaron is doing now, my next question for him is, what would you like to do next?”
From less need for nitrogen to natural weed suppression to a decrease in tillage, the savings quickly grow, especially as diesel prices hit new records. (RECORD DIESEL PRICE COVERAGE)
“If you have to work fields a time or two and then put a pass on of anhydrous, or whatever, you have to be equipped where you can do it all at once,” said Frank Bender, a neighboring farmer from Poseyville, Indiana. “In my situation, it’s pretty much just one pass.”
Like the Kruegers, Bender farms with heavy cover crops and says the system is working. The setup is similar for fellow Indiana farmer Tom Rudolph.
“We’re trying to do something we’ve been doing for 100 years in a different way and it’s hard for everyone to wrap their head around,” Rudolph says.
This year, the corn is up and so are their expectations.
“It takes a few years to get used to it,” Krueger says. “Seeing is believing and it’s just a matter of slowly increasing your comfort level.”
As planting green becomes the unconventional standard for their farm’s future.
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