Fall 2004 Rye Cover Crop -Oct 2 update
Well - I've never really put in a cover crop per se - but plan on putting in a 2 acre rye crop next week. Rye is not new for us - we plant a couple acres most years as a fall attractant. This year however - I ended up with abut 400 lbs "extra" Urea - from my corn project - and I do not want to waste it - so -we plan to plant the Rye - and put down 200 lbs/acre of urea at planting. The two acre plot was hay - with timothy, red clover, and some weeds like goldenrod.
The goal would be for the Rye to take in the Nitrogen as well as possible. In May we will plow it under and put in a Roundup Ready corn plot.
Does anyone purposely use Rye, or other fall planted plots to hold the Nitrogen content for Spring?? Is there a residual loss - or can I assume the soil will have 200 lbs/acre 46-0-0 (Urea) -plus its normal amount of N (from the soil sample).
We plowed today - I'll post pictures when I get them.