Darke Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD)
Cover Crop Informational Meeting – January 8, 2014 at 9:00am

Are you interested in planting a cover crop, but not sure where to start? If you answered yes to this question or have some uncertainties about the cover crop you have planted, then mark your calendar for the morning of Wednesday, January 8, 2014. The Darke Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD), Treaty Soil and KB Seed Solutions are hosting a Cover Crop Workshop in the Assembly Room at the Darke County Parks located at 4267 State Route 502 West, Greenville, Ohio 45331. The meeting will begin at 9:00am. Thanks to support from the 4R Tomorrow program, this workshop will help to answer many of your questions and concerns about planting a cover crop. This workshop will focus on the benefits and management challenges of best utilizing a cover crop in your rotation. There will also be a focus on different methods available for seeding during the growing season.

Nick Bowers is the Director of Operations at KB Seed Solutions located in Harrisburg, Oregon. He is fourth generation grass seed farmer and in 2007 formed KB Seed Solutions with Wayne Kizer to market their variety of annual ryegrass, KB Royal.

Bowers’ goal with this workshop is to help farmers “learn about all of the management tools needed to be successful with covers.  There is much more to using cover crops than buying some sort of seed and planting it, starting with how to pick a cover crop that is right for each individual situation”.

Greg McGlinch, Nutrient Management Specialist with Darke SWCD, has been experimenting with cover crops on his family farm for over five years. McGlinch believes understanding the benefits you are looking for and being honest about the management commitment you are willing to make are an important part when deciding on which cover to plant. “Are you looking for weed suppression or a nitrogen fixer? Do you want something that will frost kill or something that survives through the winter? How are you planning to kill the cover in spring, tillage, crimper, or with herbicides? These are some very important questions to answer before you choose a cover. As with anything, knowing exactly what you want to achieve will lead to success, but just blindly planting covers can be a costly decision,” said McGlinch.

This workshop will also touch upon different methods for seeding a cover from some local experts. The goal of this workshop is to help growers make an educated decision when it comes to cover crop seed. Utilizing cover crops can lower your input costs and benefit the environment. To register for this meeting, either call the Darke SWCD office at 937-548-1715, Ext. 3 or visit www.darkeswcd.com. Register now, space is limited.