Got cover crop questions? Join the Midwest Cover Crop Council listserv
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EmailIf you need a quick answer to your cover crop question, consider joining the Midwest Cover Crop Council listserv.
The Midwest Cover Crop Council (MCCC) has created a network of farmers, educators, researchers, agribusiness, NGO’s and agencies such as NRCS and soil conservation districts throughout the Midwest that have expertise in selecting, planting, growing and terminating cover crops. The MCCC website is housed at Michigan State University and has cover crop information from each state in the Midwest. An important component of the website is a listserv. The listserv allows you to ask questions about cover crops and to get almost immediate answers to your questions. The listserv is designed to answer questions from its members and is not designed to flood your email with mail every day. Therefore, it can be an important tool when you have cover crop questions that need to be answered very quickly.
Yesterday (May 9), a district conservationist from Illinois had a question in which he posted at 1:39 p.m. and within one hour he had recommendations from six different cover crop experts representing five different states in the Midwest. I have copied the question below that was asked by the district conservationist.
“I have a producer that has cereal rye that is about 10 to 12 inches tall with prospects of not being able to get it sprayed for another 5 to 7 days. The planned crop is corn but he is concerned about impacts to germination and N tie up with the rye as tall as it is. Are there recommendations on maximum growth for cereal rye going into corn? At what stage should he consider switching to soybeans? The farm lays in north central Illinois about 10 miles south of Interstate 80.”
The farmer had a response to his question almost immediately.
Michigan State University Extension considers the MCCC listserv an excellent tool to help farmers make decisions about cover crops. First you need to subscribe to the listserv to get recommendations. You can do this by going to the website www.mccc.msu.edu, scroll down the page and in the left-hand column at the bottom will be a section called “Contact.” Click on “Subscribe to listserv.” It is that easy to become connected and have access to the Midwest cover crop experts. This is a dedicated group of people that can help you with your cover crop questions.
