SOME COVER CROP SEEDING DATES EXTENDED

Due to the delayed crop harvest, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) extended the date to plant certain types of cover crops in Ohio.  Producers with Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) contracts that include planting cover crops can plant winter wheat and triticale until Friday, October 31, 2014, and cereal rye until Monday, November 10, 2014.

If not applied properly, fertilizers containing nutrients, like phosphorus applied on cropland, can run-off into drainage ditches or leach into tile lines and empty into the streams and rivers leading to Lake Erie or the Gulf of Mexico.  These nutrients feed algae, causing blooms that peak in the warmer summer and early fall.  The blooms may affect boating, swimming, and fishing and may cause health problems if the algae produces toxins.  Planting cover crops on fields that grow after harvesting row crops help hold nutrients in place during the fallow months, reducing soil erosion and water run-off. 

In response to the Toledo drinking water crisis last August, NRCS offered an EQIP cover crop sign-up for producers in the Western Lake Erie Basin watershed.   Producers approved for contracts to plant cover crops using the EQIP program will plant over 86,000 acres of cover crops in the watershed this fall.

For more information about cover crop planting dates, visit the Ohio NRCS website.  Contact Kelly Hardison @ 419-352-5172 ext.115  if you have questions about your EQIP contract.