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Growing cover crops to control soil erosion on cropland has long been a goal at Bartholomay Kattle Kompany in Sheldon, North Dakota. Operating on sandy land, father-and-son team Keith and Karl Bartholomay manage 4,000 acres of cropland and grassland along with 280 cow-calf pairs.
The Bartholomays grow corn for cattle feed, soybeans for cash, and cover crops for cattle feed and soil health. The pair received the 2023 North Dakota Leopold Conservation Award in recognition of the management systems they’ve built for accomplishing their conservation goals for cropland and grassland.
Successful Farming met with Keith to learn more about how his family built their simple and flexible system for growing cover crops.
Experimenting With Cover Crops
They first planted cover crops in the 1980s, looking to reduce soil erosion. “Back then, we were practicing conventional tillage, and we planted a cover crop of cereal rye to hold the soil in place in fall and over winter,” Bartholomay said. “We grew corn for silage, and we spread winter rye seed just prior to the last cultivation, when the corn was knee high. Then, we cultivated the corn to cover the rye seed. Sometimes, we also grew oats as a cover crop.”
After switching to no-till in 2004, they became more intentional about growing cover crops, not just to stop erosion but also to improve soil structure and biological activity. They also began experimenting with more species of cover crops.
“After harvesting a crop of spring wheat, we planted a cover crop mix of radish, turnips, and rapeseed,” Bartholomay said. “We later added kale in place of rapeseed because the kale stood taller, and stayed greener longer going into winter.
“After a few years, we started adding oats or, in some cases, winter rye to the cover crop mix because we wanted to include a cereal grain. We were beginning to think more about soil health and wanted the cereal grain to add more carbon to the soil.”
During that time, the Bartholomays were also trying to start utilizing a multispecies cover crop after harvesting corn for silage. “We would plant rye, radishes, and turnips after chopping silage,” he said. “But we dropped the radishes and turnips because they didn’t have enough time to grow.”
Utilizing Cereal Rye
The Bartholomays have continued to plant a single-species cereal rye cover crop after soybean harvest in early to mid-October. “The rye grows to about 6–8 inches the next spring, and we take some grazing off of it then,” Batholomay said.
In mid-May, after terminating the rye cover crop, they strip-till corn into the rye residue. The high water table in their area provides moisture for the corn that the rye might have taken.
To establish a rye cover crop in corn, the Bartholomays adopted a new method. They engaged Keith’s nephew, Ethan Bartholomay, to custom-seed rye into standing corn when it’s about a foot high. The home-built machine interseeds two rows of rye between 30-inch corn rows.
Expanded Options
While cereal rye’s persistent ability to get established has made it the Bartholomays’ cover crop of choice, they also grow triticale. “Triticale provides better grazing than cereal rye, and is easier to kill,” Bartholomay said.
If wet spring weather delays planting in some fields, the Bartholomays plant a multispecies, full-season cover crop when seeding conditions permit. “Last year, on prevent-plant acres, we planted the cover crop at the end of June to the first of July,” he said. “We planted a mix of corn, soybeans, sunflowers, radishes, kale, turnips, wheat, and oats. Some years we also add millet and sorghum sudangrass.”
They choose species that keep the seed cost down to $10–$15 an acre and stand up in snow to provide late-fall and winter grazing for cattle.
Measuring Success
The soil health benefits of growing cover crops can be hard to quantify but are nevertheless evident, Bartholomay said. While the Bartholomays have found that building organic matter takes time in their delta soils, it is improving, along with biological activity. “The soil organisms are recycling surface residue so fast that we have to consider adding higher-carbon crops to the system,” he said.
The economic benefits of growing cover crops are similarly hard to quantify. “You can’t see the dollars coming out of the system, but if you keep with it, the economic benefits are evident over the long term,” Bartholomay said. “Our overall production system is so much more resilient. We rarely have a crop failure, and we typically have good yields. When you add livestock to the system, growing cover crops is a no-brainer. But even without livestock, I believe growing cover crops pays off in the long run.”
Find Simple Ways to Start
Newcomers to cover crops might consider growing them on a small scale to start, advised Stephanie McLain, a soil health specialist for the Minnesota NRCS. “Begin on a scale large enough so that you take it seriously, but not so big that it’s overwhelming,” she said. “Your first efforts should be on a scale large enough to give you a chance to think creatively about how to work them into your operation.”
Start with a foolproof cover crop species. “Cereal rye is one of the most reliable and easy-to-grow cover crops,” she said. “No matter the conditions, it survives and thrives and does its thing. If it doesn’t get a chance to grow much in the fall, it will overwinter and grow in the spring. It does a great job of scavenging excess nitrogen, and it creates a great environment to plant soybeans into.”
Let moisture conditions guide timing of rye termination. If it is a wet spring, let the rye grow to take up moisture, McLain advised. But if the spring is dry, terminate the cereal rye to preserve soil moisture for the subsequent crop.
Growing a cover crop of rye before corn changes corn’s fertilization timing needs. “When planting corn into cereal rye, make sure to supply early-season nitrogen to the corn crop, or it will be nitrogen deficient early on in the growing season,” McLain said. “Many states recommend growing a cover crop of oats and radishes as an alternate cover crop before corn. Oats and radish winter kill and won’t have as high of a carbon-to-nitrogen ratio as cereal rye.”
Most important, learn about the cover crop species and practices best suited to your area. “Get localized recommendations for your area by talking to other local or regional farmers who grow cover crops,” McLain said.
The Midwest Cover Crops Council provides state-by-state recommendations for cover crops and recipes for their use, along with additional information for beginning cover crop growers.
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