Cover Crop Nitrogen Observation

Will7

Member
IMG_0688.JPG IMG_0684.JPG I thought this might be of interest.

This field, one pass sown for the last 6 years, was Reflection Winter Wheat last year with an average yield of 10.5t/ha with 220kgN. It was sown with a cover crop mix of berseem clover, phacelia and oil radish on the 31st Aug at a rate of 12kg/ha with my disc rake machine. It was immediately rolled as conditions were dry.

The left hand soil profile was taken from the main part of the field, the right was immediately next to it in a fertiliser overlap (liquid fert and gps glitch). The extra rooting is obvious but the difference in the corresponding soil sausages was more than I had expected from just digging the hole. You could almost make a case for drilling it now despite having 7mm in the preceding 9hrs.

Whether you can quantify whether this benefit covers the cost of using some N on covers I am not sure of, but I found it interesting nonetheless.
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
View attachment 425422 View attachment 425424 I thought this might be of interest.

This field, one pass sown for the last 6 years, was Reflection Winter Wheat last year with an average yield of 10.5t/ha with 220kgN. It was sown with a cover crop mix of berseem clover, phacelia and oil radish on the 31st Aug at a rate of 12kg/ha with my disc rake machine. It was immediately rolled as conditions were dry.

The left hand soil profile was taken from the main part of the field, the right was immediately next to it in a fertiliser overlap (liquid fert and gps glitch). The extra rooting is obvious but the difference in the corresponding soil sausages was more than I had expected from just digging the hole. You could almost make a case for drilling it now despite having 7mm in the preceding 9hrs.

Whether you can quantify whether this benefit covers the cost of using some N on covers I am not sure of, but I found it interesting nonetheless.

@dontknowanything showed us a similar example on a farm walk at his recently, despite his low august rainfall where he had excess N the CC was much better

Im glad we put a small amount of N under our covers this year, van see where we didn't to the line and have better CC growth this year than we have had for a couple of seasons despite lower rainfall
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
we also had 20mm of rainfall last night, sheep delivered into cover crops today and you could have driven the artics into the field, if I hadn't looked in the rain gauge I would not have believed it had rained at all
 

Tractor Boy

Member
Location
Suffolk
What I found interesting with my oat/radish/vetch covers drilled on 29th August is that after 2nd wheat there is nearly 0 Nitrogen left over in the soil apart from the headland overlaps. I hadn't even looked at the soil but expect it's exactly the same as you have found when looking at the massive difference in top growth.
What it brings home to me is that it's a complete myth that fertiliser utilisation by crops is supposedly as bad as the so called experts claim.
 
Though I've never tried it myself, I've been taught even legumes gets a boost in the start by having easy access to nitrogen before nodule development. That would of course mean a cover crop also gets of to a quicker start (as with any other crop) even when legumes are part of the cover crop mix. I'm thinking of applying manure to cover crops instead of cash crops, that way I don't need to incorporate it according to regulations and I am more willing to wait for good, dry conditions since it won't hit financial returns compared to a cash crop if applied later than optimal growth stage.
 
Don't do cover crops because of soil type and bunny hugging but i thought part of their raison d'être was mopping up nitrogen and lifting it through the soil. If you put on N won't this stop the roots going down looking?
 
Don't do cover crops because of soil type and bunny hugging but i thought part of their raison d'être was mopping up nitrogen and lifting it through the soil. If you put on N won't this stop the roots going down looking?

This is one of those old sayings that I would like debunked by scientific measurements; do plants really slow down their root growth and search for nutrients once they find a supply to scavenge? Perhaps someone here know the answer to that question. I have heard legumes tend to minimize nodule development as long as there's N within range in the soil, because the former is more energy demanding.
 

York

Member
Location
D-Berlin
roots are not there for searching food or as an anchor to hold the plants in place. Ask a plant physiologist for this discussion. the general perception might be a little off tracks.

Concerning N: Yes, why should a plant feed a nodule when she can get it for free in the soil?
One more thought: Nature can't control excessive N. It doesn't have a growth regulator for small grain. there is always a interconnect ability in nature like in a business, it's always a give & take.
York-Th.
 
View attachment 425422 View attachment 425424 I thought this might be of interest.

This field, one pass sown for the last 6 years, was Reflection Winter Wheat last year with an average yield of 10.5t/ha with 220kgN. It was sown with a cover crop mix of berseem clover, phacelia and oil radish on the 31st Aug at a rate of 12kg/ha with my disc rake machine. It was immediately rolled as conditions were dry.

The left hand soil profile was taken from the main part of the field, the right was immediately next to it in a fertiliser overlap (liquid fert and gps glitch). The extra rooting is obvious but the difference in the corresponding soil sausages was more than I had expected from just digging the hole. You could almost make a case for drilling it now despite having 7mm in the preceding 9hrs.

Whether you can quantify whether this benefit covers the cost of using some N on covers I am not sure of, but I found it interesting nonetheless.

Lovely looking soil both on left and right! I wonder if the N stimulates any form of soil life more directly than via better rooting?
 

Flat 10

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Fen Edge
roots are not there for searching food or as an anchor to hold the plants in place. Ask a plant physiologist for this discussion. the general perception might be a little off tracks.

York-Th.
Water? Not sure quite what you are driving at......
 

Will7

Member
Lovely looking soil both on left and right! I wonder if the N stimulates any form of soil life more directly than via better rooting?
Horrific stuff if you move it. The neighbours corresponding soil has trees and a water pit on it. Land has been 1 pass drilled since 2009 and is in significantly better condition than its neighbouring field (very similar soil) which has been min tilled until 2014. There the cover crop struggled to grow as it baked hard and I couldn't make any surface tilith.
 
I have been taught that legumes do require N at the start of there life - as they have not yet developed nodules of stored N, if you put to much N they will not produce as many nodules, so its a balancing act, to make sure they have enough for healthy development but not to much so they produce there own N as desired. With plants like Winter beans they can benefit from N when in Pod fill as they cannot consume there own N quick enough to fill pods adequately at times, So one should never assume that beans don't need nitrogen at pod fill...A good bean crop will perform better on soils with reasonable N. Soil ph can also affect nodulation...this is an area i have to work on before doing beans again.

Ant...
 

The Ruminant

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Hertfordshire
What it brings home to me is that it's a complete myth that fertiliser utilisation by crops is supposedly as bad as the so called experts claim.
I'm not sure it's a myth - there are losses aplenty, through volatilisation and particularly through leaching being an anion nitrogen doesn't attach to the clay colloid)
 

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