Cover Crop/Soil Health Field Day-Tour Scheduled for September 19th in Southeast Nebraska

Learn about cover crops being used in different cropping systems at a NRCS Demonstration Site, a SARE On-Farm Research and Education Experimental Site and a Nebraska Grazing Lands Coalition Site. 

Nebraska Extension, North Central SARE, NRCS, and the Nebraska Grazing Lands Coalition are sponsoring a Cover Crop Field Day/Tour on Tuesday, September 19^th.  The field day/tour will start at the Daryl Obermeyer Farm east of Auburn. Registration is at 9:00 with refreshments; followed by the program beginning at 9:30 a.m.Daryl’s Farm is one of several demonstration farm sites across Nebraska that the NRCS has established to evaluate soil health principles and the impact of cover crops on soil health in different cropping systems.  At the demonstration site Stephen Kennedy, District Conservationist from Nemaha County and Aaron Hird, Soil Health Specialist from NRCS will discuss and demonstrate soil health principles, explain the project at this site and answer questions about this program in Nebraska.  Participants will have the opportunity to view the plots at this site.  Daryl has a corn, soybean, wheat rotation with cover crops planted following each crop. The above photos show the cover crops growing following wheat and the corn and soybeans which will be harvested this fall.

 

The second stop on the tour is the Rob and Trent Bohling Farm.  This is the site of a North Central SARE Research and Education Grant that the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is conducting with the Bohlings.  In this on-farm research project, cover crops have been incorporated into a cropping system and the impact of cover crops and grazing cover crops is being compared to no cover crops on the impact on soil health and crop yields.  Humberto Blanco, UNL Soil Scientist will discuss research that is being conducted at this site and in Nebraska and the impact of cover crops and grazing on soil physical properties and crop yields.  Mary Drewnoski, Beef Systems Specialist, Nebraska Extension, will discuss the feed value of cover crops, the economics of grazing cover crops and potential nitrate issues in grazing cover crops. We will also be serving lunch at this site.  Participants will have the opportunity to view the cover crops here as well.  Above are photos of the cover crop growing and a plot without the over crops.  Crop yields and soil data is being collected from this experiment. 

The final stop on the tour will be at the Rod Christen Farm, with the site being southwest of Tecumseh where Rod has a Cover Crop Demonstration site as part of the Nebraska Grazing Lands Coalition (NGLC) Demonstration Project.  Rod, Ron Bolze, NGLC Coordinator, Mitch Stephenson, UNL Range Management Specialist and Nate Pflueger, UNL graduate student working will have a report on this project.   This field day is free to the public.  While pre-registration isn’t required, it is encouraged for lunch. 

To register, for information about the field day or directions to the tour sites, contact Gary Lesoing at Nebraska Extension in Nemaha County at (402) 274-4755. In case of rain the event will take place at the Nemaha County Fairgrounds in the 4-H Building at 816 I St., Auburn, NE.