Environmental Trifecta: Cover Crops, No-till, & Planting Green

By: Jessie Scott

On a sunny day in late March when the neighbors are prepping their planters, you can find Trey Hill planting corn into a foot of green clover, cereal rye, and a mix of other cover crops.

The Rock Hall, Maryland, farmer uses cover crops on all of his 13,000 acres and he plants green into the majority of them. And he does it without sacrificing yields. (At the right, Harborview Farms is planting corn into a rape and clover cover crop mix.)

“We’ve run strip trials the last three years comparing green vs. brown planting for soybeans. The beans are yielding about 10 bushels higher in green,” says Hill, whose beans average 60 to 70 bushels per acre.