Soil HEALTH MORE THAN CORN AND BEANS:
DIVERSE PLANTS WORK FOR FARM, SOIL By Janelle Atyeo, for the South Dakota Soybean Association
O
n the edge of Castlewood, South Dakota, it’s diversity that makes it all work on the Schooley farm.
From adding small grains to the crop rotation and planting cover crops to putting cattle on the crop land and fostering native grasses in the pastures, Chad Schooley has worked over his 30 years in farming to bring diversity to his Hamlin County farm. Schooley runs a cow-calf operation and a feedlot, along with raising soybeans, corn, alfalfa and small grains. For the last 20 years, he’s incorporated cover crops as a way to build soil health and provide winter grazing for his cow herd. His cropping system makes it all work. “The key to cover crops is your rotations,” he said. Growing a strict corn and soybean rotation makes it difficult to establish a healthy cover crop stand. It can be difficult to seed covers into standing crops, and waiting until after harvest means there isn’t much time before frost hits. “Our growing season isn’t long enough here,” said Schooley, who represents District 4 on the South Dakota Soybean Association Board of Directors. That’s where small grains come in. This year, he’ll follow 250 acres of winter wheat with a cover crop. “If you can get a small grain in the rotation, cover crops really fit well,” Schooley said. He plants wheat and oats, and his goal is to harvest them by the last week in July in order to seed his cover crop as soon as possible. That’s because moisture is key to jumpstarting the cover crop stand and he wants to take advantage of any summer rain. He’s found they need about an inch of rain to thrive. After a dry period last summer, his Hamlin County farm caught enough rain to get the cover crop growing. Fall brought a good amount of moisture, and his cover crop soaked it in. “Now we have a very nice cover crop,” he said. Some years, the radishes and turnips in his cover crop mix reach knee high by the time he turns his cows out. Regrowth from the harvested oat crop can reach waist-high and start to head out. “There’s lots of eating out there,” Schooley said.
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Spring Issue 2022
SDSL
