Background
Cover crops can contribute many benefits to corn producers, but the expense and difficulty of establishing them, particularly in no-till fields, has limited their adoption. Cover crops could reduce nutrient runoff and leaching following harvest, especially in regions where livestock manure is spread on crop residues. Cover crops can also help build soil structure and organic matter and this is critical where some of the corn stalks could be removed for animal bedding or biofuels. Cover crops can also be used as a forage crop and, if established early enough, can provide valuable high quality feed to livestock or dairy farmers. This is especially critical when feed prices are high as they are now. Cover crop establishment following a corn crop harvested for grain requires a separate trip across the field and is also often too late in the season to provide significant benefits in the cropping system. Attempts to broadcast cover crop seeds with aircraft or high clearance equipment have been inconsistent.

Invention Description
The Penn State inventors have developed an efficient, multitask implement that applies fertilizer and herbicide precisely, while facilitating the seeding of cover crops during the sidedressing stage in no-till and tilled corn or other row crop systems. This device effectively interseeds cover crops in the space between the rows and combines two other operations to reduce the cost of establishment of the cover crop. The method and timing of seeding minimizes potential competitive effects from the cover crop on the corn crop. Fertilizer and herbicide application approaches on the implement provide additional efficiencies that can reduce costs compared to traditional approaches. This system has the potential to greatly improve the sustainability of corn production and increase the potential for additional feed or feedstock production from the same land base. The invention is particularly significant in light of increased focus on reducing runoff into the Chesapeake Bay, the increased demand for crop residues and feed, the intense interest in cover crops, the growing adoption of no-till crop production and the need to improve the productivity of our agricultural soils.

File Number: 3730 

Web site: http://cropsoil.psu.edu/directory/gwr

Other Information:

Status of the Invention

The Penn State researchers have constructed a working prototype from commercially available components. The prototype has been field-tested at three field sites in the first season. Harvest data demonstrated that cover crop establishment was successful with no impacts on corn yields.