Whether your intent is to hold the soil or winter-spread manure, cover crops are an excellent choice. Normally, one thinks of oats or rye, but there are some other options as well. Thomas Björkman from Horticultural Sciences-Geneva has developed a cover crop decision tool for growers that is online (funded by NYFVI). Thomas works mostly with vegetables, (and buckwheat) but the tool is equally useful in field crop production. The tool uses the same language for soil health management goals as used in the Soil Health Reports, so growers and consultants should find it well integrated with the soil health testing efforts. The tool also provides a lot of very useful additional management information. It was specifically designed for New York growing conditions.

One of the first steps to picking a cover crop is why. What is your goal for a cover crop? Are you looking to:

• Suppress weeds, diseases or pests
• Protect soil from rain or runoff
• Improve soil aggregate stability
• Add active organic matter to soil
• Break hardpan
• Fix or scavenge nitrogen

Planting time is a critical decision. Varying amounts of time are needed for cover crop establishment. Spring management can be critical as well. Problems can be avoided with proper selections, whether the crop frostkills, or needs early spring plowdown or kill.

The tool also lists seed prices from 2007, which will give you a rough idea for this year. All the decision criteria (Management Goal Planting Time - Duration) do not have to be entered at the same time. Your best bet is to select one criterion and narrow the search from that. The tool will give you choices for cover crops seed sources, seeding rates, planting dates, management goals and tricks, avoidable and unavoidable problems, plus more!

The main cover crop page:
http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/hort/faculty/bjorkman/covercrops/why.html
The decision tool can be accessed at: http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/hort/faculty/bjorkman/covercrops/decisiontool.php

If you don’t have internet access, give me a call! I can run some scenarios through the decision tool and come up with some choices to help you out. Phone #: 315.536.5123
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