Page 6—Corn Talk, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 14, 2000
Capitol Region
gronomy Team
(Continued from Pago 1)
and poorly prepared land,
rye out performs all other
cover crops.
Benefits
• Nutrients. Rye is the best
cool season cereal for absorb
ing soil nitrogen. Its fast
growing, fibrous root system
can take up and hold as
much as 100-pounds per
acre, but typically 25 to 50-
pounds of nitrogen until
spring. Rye increases the con
centration of exchangeable
potassium near the surface of
the soil by bringing it up from
lower in the soil profile.
• Soil stability. Along with
conservation tillage practices,
rye provides soil protection
on sloping fields and holds
soil loss to a tolerable level.
• Versatile. In our region,
rye can serve as an over
wintering cover crop after
corn, before or after soy
beans, fruits or vegetables. It
is not the best choice before a
small grain crop, such as
wheat or barley, unless you
can kill the rye reliably and
completely, because volun
teer rye seed would lower the
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Your Hoffman Seeds dealer wants to help you save on your next seed corn purchase.
When you buy 10 bags of any NK® Brand seed corn before November 30, 2000, you'll get
2 EXTRA BAGS ABSOLUTELY FREE. See your Hoffman/NK® Brand dealer for details. IQJ i nnovatlveS oumo„ s
value of other grains.
• Organic matter. Rye
provides up to 10,000-pounds
of dry matter per acre with
3,000 to 4,000-pounds typical
in the Northeast.
• Weed suppressor. In
cool seasons, rye is one of the
best for out competing weeds,
especially small seeded, light
sensitive annuals such as
lambsquarters, redroot
pigweed, velvetleaf,
chickweed, and foxtail. Rye
also suppresses many weeds
allelopathically (as a natural
herbicide), including dande
lions and Canada thistle.
• Pest suppressor. Rye re
duces insect pest problems in
rotations and attracts signifi
cant numbers of beneficials
such as lady bugs.
Establishment
Drill one to two bushels per
acre no deeper than two
inches deep or broadcast one
and one-half to three bushels
and lightly disk or cultipack.
Very late seeding rates can be
up to six bushels per acre to
assure an adequate stand.
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Cost Farmers, Business Millions
ST. LOUIS, Mo. The
National Corn Growers As
sociation (NCGA) is out
raged by the recent
announcement that the Army
Corps of Engineers will delay
a benchmark study on $1 bil
lion in improvements on the
upper Mississippi rivers.
“We are not disappointed,
we are livid,” said Paul Ber
Killing
And Controlling
Rye grows and matures
quickly in the spring. Tem
perature and moisture deter
mine maturity rate. Once rye
is tall and stemmy, rye ties up
nitrogen while it decomposes.
The nitrogen tie-up varies di
rectly with the maturity of
the rye. Killing rye early,
while it’s still succulent (the
preboot to early-boot stage),
is a way to minimize nitrogen
tie-up. Killing the rye earlier,
rather than later, will help
reduce chance that spring
rains delay killing past the
preboot to boot stage.
Tilling under rye at 12-
inches to 18-inches usually
eliminates regrowth and ni
trogen tie-up. Two to three
pints of a properly mixed and
applied glyphosate herbicide
should kill the crop. In the
southern region of the Penn
sylvania, this is usually in
late March.
Corps ’ Decision To
tels, NCGA’s director of pro
duction and marketing.
Every farmer out there
should be equally as irate, ac
cording to NCGA. Farmers
should be telling their con
gressional representatives
that the Corps’ Navigation
study should continue with
out delay.
“The Corps has spent $54
million on this study, and
what do we have to show for
it? Absolutely nothing. In ac
tuality, this will not be a one
year delay, but will result in
several years of delay. The
Corps should release the in
formation they have gathered
for public debate and com
ment.”
NCGA is seeking improve
ments on the Upper Missis
sippi and Illinois rivers
namely doubling the 600-foot
lock chambers at Mississippi
River Lock and Dam 25, 24,
22, 20 and 21, and at the La-
Grange and Peoria locks on
the Illinois River. For the
past seven years, NCGA has
watched the Corps of Engi
neers conduct the $54 million
upper Mississippi-Illinois
Water Navigation Study and
has attempted to be fully en
gaged in the study process
every step of the way, noted
Bertels.
“However, the Corps is ob
viously not making the con-
cerns of farmers a top
priority,” he continued.
“There can be no delay in up
grading the aging and deteri
orating U.S. river
infrastructure. These delays
cost U.S. farmers and busi
ness an average of $94 mil
lion per year. Without
continued investments in the
transportation infrastruc
ture, U.S. farmers are being
placed at a severe disadvan
tage as foreign countries in
crease their commitment to
developing their agricultural
export markets.”
The lock and dam struc
tures on the upper Missis
sippi and Illinois rivers are
more than 50 years old and
are unable to handle the cur
rent volume of barge traffic
on the river. Subsequently,
the resulting delays of three
to four hours at each facility
costs approximately $9OO per
barge.
“The Corps should release
the current report for public
review, and second, the ad-
ministration has dictated
that portions of the study
must be revised, then the
Corps must revisit each point
of contention,” Bertels said.
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