Cover Crop Field Day at the Purfeerst Farm

There was a big crowd at Jim Purfeerst's farm this morning. Jim said they were hoping for maybe 50 and they had more than 160 people there. Farmers are concerned about soil erosion! Because of the heavy rains the last two years we have seen a lot of soil erosion. This occurred even on fields with very little slope. Jim started working with the rice County SWCD and NRCS office to develop a plan to deal with these heavy rains we seem to be getting more often. When the corn was about knee high Jim was planning on spreading a little dry urea over the top of the corn. So, they also included some cover crops. The hope was that because the cover crop was shaded by the corn it would get established but not really compete with the corn. Than later on this September when the corn matures more light will get through and the cover crop can really take off. In the second picture you can seen the cover crops growing under the corn. And, yes, the top of the picture is my finger!!! Guess I'll have to be more careful.