Golden Hills participates in Cover Crops Essentials course

Golden Hills Project Coordinator Shaun Ahern recently finished the test plot portions of the Midwest Cover Crop Council’s Cover Crops Essentials course. The test plots consisted of two different cover crop mixes he created that each had two 3 feet x 3 feet test plots.

The first mix consisted of red clover, sorghum sudangrass, and buckwheat. The second mix included crimson clover, oats, and mustard. He chose these mixes to see how the combination of different functional groups led to the mixes’ performance. For the first plot of each, all three species were broadcast seeded at a 100% seeding rate. For the second plot of each, the two colver species were broadcast seeded at a 100% seeding rate while all others were seeded at a 50% seeding rate.  

He finished up by taking biomass samples and measuring other ecosystem services indicators. 

The graphics below include a table of the measurements for 7 ecosystem service indicators and a spider plot of their axis scores to visualize how each mixture performed among those indicators.

Photos below include the test plots before samples were removed, including each of the species present, and the amount of each sample after they were removed. The total biomass collected of each species is as follows: 

• red clover: 154 g/m2 (equivalent of 1,374 lb/acre) 

• sorghum sudangrass: 2,213 g/m2 (equivalent of 19,744 lb/acre) 

• buckwheat: 84 g/m2 (equivalent of 749 lb/acre) 

• crimson clover: 68 g/m2 (equivalent of 607 lb/acre) 

• oats: 68 g/m2 (equivalent of 607 lb/acre) 

• mustard: 0 g/m2 

oats

buckwheat

sorghum sudangrass

crimson clover

red clover

all four test plots

collected samples of all species that emerged

These test plots allowed Shaun to get hands-on experience with cover crop research. Overall, the Cover Crops Essentials course allowed him to gain a better understanding of all the various factors to consider and that come into play with designing cover crop mixtures, planting, establishing, managing, and terminating cover crops. This should be helpful to Golden Hills staff with future projects that involve cover crops. Cover crops are an important in-field conservation and soil health practice that can provide a multitude of benefits, including the ecosystem service indicators in the graphics above and other benefits such as nitrogen scavenging, pest predation, and possible forage for livestock.