We have been busy getting corn harvested and cover crops ready for planting over here! As you start thinking about which cover crop species/varieties you’d like to try this year, take a look at the latest data from our Southern Cover Crop Variety Trial. This trial covers a broad region of the Southeast, with sites in TN, KY,  AR, NC, SC, VA, AL, GA, FL, and TX.

This year we evaluated 20 varieties, including 1 brassica, 9 cereals, and 10 legumes.  These included the following species, with number of varieties evaluate indicated in parentheses:  daikon radish (1 ), cereal rye (2 ), oat (6 ), triticale (1), balansa clover (1), berseem clover (1), crimson clover (3), Persian clover (1), red clover (1), common vetch (1), and hairy vetch (1).

Establishment, cover crop cover and weed suppression during the growing season, and biomass, height, nitrogen release, and forage nutritive value at an early spring (pre-corn) and late spring (pre-soybean) evaluation date were evaluated for each entry. Methods used to evaluate and analyze these data and graphs of environmental conditions at each site during the cover crop growing season can be found in the 2024 Southern Cover Crop Variety Trial Report Final pdf version of the report. Result tables are listed in the pdf or as a separate download in excel.

We hope you find this data useful in your search for the best cover crop species/varieties to fit your location and your growing system!

I’ve spent the better part of the past three days walking cotton throughout West Tennessee, and while I’m pleasantly surprised by our earliest planted acres, I’m concerned the crop in many areas may fall well-short of what we might have expected at the end of July. In this blog, I briefly share my thoughts on how I would approach terminating irrigation in 2024 and what I believe may be our best first-shot blend for defoliating our earliest acres. Continue reading →