Innovation Grant Spotlight: Can wide rows give cover crops a better start?

Written
by Jonathan Eisenthal

Drowned out low spots and soupy soil right
when he wanted to plant his corn—not once, but for three seasons running—has left
Mark Enninga frustrated, and wondering how he could do things better. He turned
to cover crops to improve soil structure and water infiltration, but initial
attempts were frustrated by early frosts.

Enninga, who farms in Fulda, decided to
undertake his own experiment by applying to be part of the 2020 Minnesota Corn
Innovation Grant Program.

During the 2020 growing season, Enninga will
be using a wide-row system: 44-inch rows, the seeds planted closer together
along the row to keep the plant population the same at 35,000 seeds per acre.
In the wider inter-row, Enninga will plant a cover crop mix once the corn has
reached V4—a healthy head start for the corn, and a much earlier start for the
cover crops. He hopes to give the cover crop time to really establish and
develop healthy biomass. With any luck it will be a nice forage source for his
family’s Black Angus cattle.

When Enninga was researching cover crops he
discovered the work of Bob Recker. For 41 years Recker worked as an engineer at
John Deere, and when he retired, he launched Cedar Valley Innovation to work
with farmers to develop a better way to grow crops.

One focus for Recker is ‘Solar Harvesting,’
the notion that corn can be grown in wide rows to maximize sun exposure. In
this environment, corn plants tolerate higher plant populations and increase
their yield. One of the key concepts in Recker’s Solar Harvesting system is
using cover crops in the inter-row space to prevent weeds from filling the
vacuum.

With the Innovation Grant, Enninga can
contract with Recker as consultant, to design and support the research plot.
There will be six different replications along half-mile rows at Enninga’s farm.
The grant also pays for the purchase and planting of the cover crop seed.

The cover crop formula per acre: eight pounds
of annual rye, one pound of tillage radish, one pound of purple-top turnips,
one pound of rape seed, one pound of buckwheat, and a half-pound of Balansa clover.

Mark is also collaborating with his local
National Resources Conservation Service to help him evaluate the wide rows with
cover crops and see their impact on soil health characteristics, particularly
water infiltration—the problem that gave rise to Enninga’s research project in
the first place.

“There is a financial ramification to putting inputs into a spot in the field where, in many years, you essentially get zero yield [due to a drowned out field],” Enninga said. “Yes, last year was an extreme, but the heavy rain events we are experiencing–that’s reality. We need to use systems that are resilient to these conditions to protect our soil and profits.”

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