Plant Cover Crops. Feed Cattle Protect Soil.

TRIFECTA OF TACTICS MAY BENEFIT ILLINOIS BEEF PRODUCERS

Researchers at UIUC and IDOA share resources for cover crop usage.

by Barb Anderson

Illinois corn and soybean farmers increasingly understand the benefits of planting cover crops; building soil health, retaining nutrients, controlling erosion and suppressing weeds. But seeing those advantages come to economic fruition requires patience.

“A lot of research has been done on the benefits of cover crops for crop farmers,” says Dan Shike, University of Illinois animal sciences associate professor. “Now we are starting to get questions from producers about integrating cattle into the system. We see an opportunity for those producers to get a quicker return from cover crops by lowering feeding costs.”

Brain Rennecker, bureau chief with the Illinois

UIUC cover crop plot that was mechanically harvested in May at the Urbana Campus site.

Department of Agriculture Bureau of Land & Water Resources, agrees. “Cover crops, in addition to their water quality and soil benefits, offer a good protein source for cattle producers for grazing during the fall and winter,” he says. “More and more producers are learning there are good forage benefits with multi-species cover crop blends that are cheaper and require less maintenance than alfalfa as forage.”

Shike together with Kylie Ewing, University of Illinois graduate research assistant, is exploring the possibilities for beef producers to graze cover crops or harvest cover as feedstuffs.

“Illinois has two million acres of pasture and 27 million acres of cropland. When you integrate crops with livestock, the short-term economic benefit is using cropland during the winter with more land for grazing. It improves use of available forage, lengthens the grazing season and lowers feed costs,” says Ewing. “Integrating cover crops into grain and beef cattle operations will provide soil-livestock synergies and a viable opportunity to see improved cattle gains.”

Ewing’s research is just underway to determine cover crop forage yield and quality as well as feed value of different small grain forage monocultures and legume blends. She also is assessing soil properties with university crop scientists. The objective is to study the effects of grazed and ungrazed cover crops on especially physical and biological soil health.

During fall of 2020, cover crop trials were established at the Dudley Smith Farm in Pana and on the University of Illinois campus in Urbana. Four cover crop treatments were planted at each location: cereal rye, triticale, rye plus crimson clover and triticale plus crimson clover.

The Pana site was divided into grazed and ungrazed sections to study the impact of cattle on the soil and the impact of forage quality and quantity on performance. All four treatments in Urbana were harvested for haylage in the spring for use in a feed study to evaluate cattle performance.

“We are just one year in on this project,” says Shike. “We need to gather multiple-year data on both the monoculture cover crop and the various blends of species that farmers continue to try to determine which blends are best.”

Factors for Consideration

Even though the research is in its early stages, Shike and Ewing have been able to identify several management practices that producers can evaluate in their own operations today. However, benefits of those practices are moving targets as every farm and every year is different.

Ewing advises producers to first outline individual goals for incorporating cover crops and feeding cattle. Producers must decide whether to feed cows or weaned calves, for example, and whether to graze in the fall or spring or harvest cover crops for haylage instead. Once those decisions are made, a planting window with the chosen crop(s) can be established.

“Cover crops are sensitive to seeding timing. If you are just planting cover crops as cover to help retain nutrients in the soil for the next year, timing is less sensitive. But if you want to graze in the fall, you need to be more be particular on timing and species selection,” says Shike.

As part of her research, Ewing is testing planting cover

UIUC cover crop plot at grazing in April at the Dudley Smith Farm.

crop seed into an existing corn or soybean crop using a robot that travels under the plant canopy. This improves seed-tosoil contact as compared to aerial seed application and may diminish the timing challenge.

“If cover crop planting must take place after harvest, the number of days that cover will be available for grazing is limited. When grazing cows, length of grazing is particularly important,” says Ewing. “In Pana, we had timely planting and a good stand, so we were able to spring graze.”

Ewing adds that weaned calves placed on cover crops during the winter will see better gain than cows. Spring grazing of either cows or calves is subject to weather. Traditionally wet soils in the spring are easily compacted by cattle. Other factors that must be weighed by producers when deciding what animals to graze are soil and crop yield impacts, stocking rate and cost and logistical considerations for fencing, water supply and facilities.

“Location also plays a role in using cover crops for cattle, since Illinois from north to south features a variety of beef production systems. “Timing flexibility is going to be better in southern Illinois,” Shike says. “Aerial seeding is likely required in the north to get a jump start on timing. Every day you can graze is going to increase your feed cost savings.”

While little research has been done to calculate the economics of grazing or feeding cover crops, Shike estimates getting 40 days of grazing in the fall may mean easily $100 per acre in feed cost savings. In the spring, 10-15 days of grazing may be available for $20-50 per acre in savings. A good rule of thumb may be $2 per cow per day in savings, so up to $80 per cow.

“We will continue to see cover crop grazing gain momentum in Illinois,” says Shike. “In some ways, trial and error by producers is already ahead of university research. We will share forage quality and yield, cattle performance and more with producers once research is complete.”

Rennecker notes the trend toward more cover crop conservation aids the state’s nutrient loss reduction goals. “As we see more conservation projects on the ground, we make decent progress toward our goals. But it takes time, dollars and staffing. We are stair stepping to success.”

To get started combining cover crops and cattle, Ewing recommends these websites:

Grazing Cover Crops: A How-To Guide by Pasture Project • https://pastureproject.org/publications/grazingcover-crops-how-to-guide/ Cover Crop Guide by Illinois Nutrient Research & Education Council • https://www.illinoisnrec.org/cover-cropguide-2-0/ Cover Crops for Sustainable Crop Rotations from the Sustainable Ag Research and Education (SARE) • https://www.sare.org/resources/cover-crops/

Illinois cattle producers have more opportunity to graze cover crops with less financial risk in 2022. For example, USDA announced last summer that producers with crop insurance can hay, graze or chop cover crops for silage, haylage or baleage at any time and still receive 100 percent of any prevented planting payments. Previously, cover crops could only be hayed, grazed or chopped after November 1 or the prevented planting payment was reduced by 65 percent.

In addition, USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) no longer considers a cover crop planted following a prevented planting claim to be a second crop. But RMA will continue to consider a cover crop harvested for grain or seed a second crop subject to a reduction in the prevented planting indemnity. USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) also recently dropped their proposed restriction regarding mechanical harvest of cover crops.

Illinois has existing programs for producers to receive a premium benefit for planting cover crops. All cover crops reportable to the Farm Service Agency (FSA) are eligible and include cereals and other grasses, legumes, brassicas and other nonlegume broadleaves, and mixtures of two or more cover crop species planted at the same time.

This Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA) Cover Crop Premium Discount Program, or “Fall Cover for Spring Savings,” as it is known, is offered for cover crop acres outside of other state and federal program incentives, such as the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) and state cost-share programs.

Interested participants in December could sign up acres planted to cover crops in the fall of 2021 that would be planted to an insurable crop in 2022. The state will cover 100,000 acres with a $5 per acre insurance premium discount on the following year’s crop insurance invoice for every acre of cover crop enrolled and verified in the program. As of deadline, the program was anticipated to fill quickly. The program also allows for managed haying and grazing of cover crops if it does not jeopardize the intended crop’s function and USDA crop termination rules.

Illinois also offers the Partners for Conservation Program through local Soil and Water Conservation Districts. While some of the funding is for office operations, other funding is available for cost-share conservation practices with up to 75 percent paid by the county.

“There are a multitude of programs on the federal and state levels. Producers need to be aware of what will work for their farms, as programs cannot be stacked together,” says Rennecker.