It is incredibly important to understand carbon to nitrogen (C:N) ratios before planting corn into high biomass cover crop.  The biology in our soil uses nitrogen as fuel to breakdown carbon.  The more carbon we have in our cover crop, the more nitrogen will be needed to break it down. 

On this farm, we planted corn directly into cereal rye.  Because this cover crop was 100% cereal rye (something we don't recommend, but nevertheless found ourselves with), we know the C:N is very high.  If we did nothing to help this corn, nitrogen-tie up and weak and yellow corn plants would be a certainty. 

To prevent this from happening, we streamed 50 gallons of 28-0-0-5, with humic acid and a nitrogen stabilizer, over the corn about 20 days after planting.  We hope streaming on this nitrogen will meet the needs of our corn crop and the biology that is working to break down the cover crop.

You may enjoy this video if you want to:

• Apply the principles of soil health on your farms

• Plant green into mature living cover crop

• Reduce erosion and loss of nutrients

• Increase beneficial soil biology

• Increase earthworm populations

• Increase soil organic matter

• Learn more about regenerative agriculture