Farming has seasons and rhythms, but nature doesn’t always agree. Droughts, heavy rains, and cold snaps can all put a wrench in your thought-out plans. You can still have a successful harvest and get those cover crops in if you’re willing to be flexible and work with the weather in your area.
Late Doesn’t Mean Lost: Strategies for Cover Crops After Harvest
The worst thing for your topsoil is to leave it uncovered over the winter. Those spring rains will run right off, taking topsoil and nutrients with it. Roots in the ground avoid those rill erosion events and keep more of the nutrients you applied this year.
Winter-hardy choices, such as cereal rye, triticale, and winter wheat, will still establish in October and overwinter successfully. There are pros and cons to these winter-hardy cover crops.
Pros of Late-Season Cover Crops
They help maintain soil integrity and improve water management. Keeping roots in the ground promotes nutrient buildup and supports microbial biodiversity. They disrupt pest and disease cycles and suppress weeds.
Cons of Late-Season Cover Crops
Selecting the correct mix of cover crops requires knowledge about the growth habits of all those species. There is an additional cost to buy cover crop seeds. Some experts will say the cover crops are unfavorable competition to your cash crops. We happen to disagree with that and have proof to back up our statement.
Our list of pros didn’t include the benefit to soil health, which we consider to be of paramount importance. Cover crops, even if planted late without enough time to create a lot of aboveground growth, benefit the soil. Over time, they help you build up topsoil. Would you rather watch your topsoil and nutrients wash away during those spring rains?
Proper Seeding Techniques Make for Successful Covers
Using a drill to plant cover crop seeds gives you the best seed-to-soil contact. But for many reasons, drill planting may not be feasible. Wet fields will stall operations. Moving over your soil again may cause compaction issues, especially if you’re trying to plant in less-than-ideal conditions.
If you don’t already have a drill planter, investing in one will cost you a pretty penny. A mid-range multi-crop drill can be upwards of $40,000. But it is an investment, and when you’re converting from conventional to regenerative farming practices, it is a tool you’ll use for the lifetime of the farm.
Many ag operators are contracting with drone operators for more flexibility on timing and types of terrain to plant with covers. Drone technology enables you to plan to inter-seed cover crops before harvest. This expands the planting window into August and September, well before traditional drills can access the field.
Aerial seeding offers multiple advantages over driving heavy machinery over your field. No compaction. Drones can adjust for canopy density in corn and soybeans to improve seed deposition and emergence rates.
If you have acreage in Natural Resources Conservation Service programs, drone seeding aligns with cost-share and conservation incentive programs. The government may pick up some of the costs of that drone contract.
What About Termination of Winter-Hardy Covers in Spring?
This is the number-one question asked about winter-hardy cover crops. And the importance we have placed on having a “clean” field to plant into is at the root of the question. Let’s rephrase this question:
What benefits can I get from planting my cash crop into green cover crops?
The first benefit is weed suppression. While your spring planting is germinating, weed seeds are sprouting all over the place. If you’ve already covered the ground with cover crops that include legumes, weeds don’t have a chance to grow. While legumes winter kill, they become food for beneficial microbes that store nutrients for when your plants need them. They don’t give up nutrients to plants that don’t give them something back in return.
Cover crops also improve soil moisture retention. Those spring rains that created gullies in your neighbors’ fields have soaked into your fields, giving you greater resilience should it be a drought year.
It’s also easier to get into your field because you’re not rolling over bare soil after a rain (aka: mud) but a carpet of green holding everything in place. You can plant earlier, take advantage of more spring rains, and bring to market a higher-quality product earlier.
Like everything else in life, planting into covers does have some trade-offs. If the spring is very dry, the covers may compete for water. But the flip side of this is that the covers will decrease the amount of evaporation so more moisture will be available for ALL crops.
Some covers do have allopathic properties; choose your cover crops wisely with an eye on what you’ll be planting in the spring. Those allelochemicals suppress the germination of nearby plants, especially weeds. Some covers, such as buckwheat and brassicas, winter kill and lose the ability to inhibit germination. Cereal rye reduces lambsquarter, pigweed, and crabgrass from germinating. Talk to one of our consultants for recommendations on how to best select crops to fit with your cover crop.
If you manage livestock, plan to rotate in a year of grazing to take advantage of that lush cover crop vegetation. It also adds diversity to your harvest portfolio.
Even when planted later in the season, cover crops are more than a last-minute fix. They’re a long-term investment in soil vitality, resilience, and ecological balance. Their roots build structure that persists through freeze-thaw cycles, their biomass feeds microbial life, and their presence cushions your system against the unpredictable swings of climate and market alike.
Whether you’re boosting biodiversity, protecting fallow acres, or unlocking fertility for next spring, late cover crops quietly transform short-term gaps into lasting gains. Every seed you sow now sets the stage for healthier harvests tomorrow.
Contact our team at ST Biologicals for more information on how cover crops can benefit your ag operation. We’re here to help you succeed. When soil speaks, we listen.
