Preventive Plant Options

Many final planting dates for full crop insurance coverage have now passed us by in North Dakota; which includes the following crops: wheat, barley, soybean, corn (grain), canola, flax, dry bean, dry peas, lentils, sugar beets, potatoes, oats, safflower, mustard, chickpea and forages. In some counties, the final planting date for full crop insurance coverage of sunflower, rye and buckwheat will be approaching soon.

Taking into consideration all of the challenges within the last year, we’ve had a lot of questions about Preventive Plant options for 2020. Now that full crop insurance coverage options have surpassed for many crops, we thought it would be important to touch on some ideas to consider. While you’re considering options that work best for your operation, we wanted to share our recommendations and tips with you.

When you’re considering using a cover crop on Preventive Plant acres, it would be easy to just use up left over seed in your bin. But we encourage you to look at the bigger picture of helping to resolve the issues you’re seeing. Using a cover crop blend of species that will address your specific goals will also add crop diversity, add soil nutrients, break up compaction, use extra water and provide better weed control. These reasons alone justify investing a small amount in your acres vs. planting ‘that old wheat seed sitting in the bin’.

A commitment that we make to our Preventive Plant customers is to create cover crop mixtures that are affordable. You’re already facing issues beyond your control so our goal is to provide economical options for you. Our original “Prevent Plant” cover crop mix is designed to soak up moisture, provide late season cover and to fixate Nitrogen. Since areas with excessive moisture tend to also have saline seeps, we’ve added barley to help with any saline issues. The inclusion of our winter pea is great for keeping something green out there longer than spring annuals. This mix has approximately 500,000 seeds/acre so you could always increase the seeding rate to provide even more ground cover and soak up more water. We recommend a drilled seeding rate of 12.5 pounds/acre. The peas in this mixture will need to be inoculated at the time of seeding. We carry a peat-based product that can easily be applied while you’re in the field.

Components (Seeding Rate Pounds/Acre)

Forage Barley (5.00), Crimson Clover (0.50), Winter Pea (4.00), Radish (1.00), Rapeseed (1.00), Turnip (1.00)

Unlike 2019, there have been no changes to the haying & grazing restriction on Preventive Plant acres. From our understanding, it doesn’t appear that it will be adjusted either from the November 1st date. So, we’ve formulated our “Preventive Plant for Grazing” cover crop mixture with the normal November 1st haying & grazing restriction date in mind. This mix is mostly cool season species to ensure that you have adequate forage late in the growing season for your livestock. We do have the option to substitute annuals for winter annuals if you’d like to use up even more moisture & have re-growth the following Spring. The Japanese Millet is great at suppressing weeds and is good for haying or grazing purposes. The cattle love the sweetness of the Super Sugar and it’s wide, long leaves. The Piper Sudangrass has an exceptionally higher relative feed value than other grasses. This is a nice balanced mixture with variable plant heights in the grasses for ample forage and weed control. At full maturity, Japanese Millet is 48”, Piper Sudangrass is 60” and Super Sugar is 70”. The inclusion of collards, kale, radish and turnip are going to be great for soaking up moisture and mighty tasty for the livestock! We recommend a drilled seeding rate of 23 pounds/acre. The peas in this mixture will need to be inoculated at the time of seeding. We carry a peat-based product that can easily be applied while you’re in the field.

Components (Seeding Rate, Pounds/Acre)

Collards (1.00), Kale (1.00), Japanese Millet (4.00), Forage Oat (4.00), Winter Pea (4.00), Radish (1.00),
Super Sugar Sorghum x Sudan (2.00), Sudangrass (1.00), Spring Triticale (4.00), Turnip (1.00)

We’ve been collaborating alongside the NDSU Soil Health team once again this year as we talk about Preventive Plant acres. You can learn more about the conversations we’ve been having by listening to the online webinars on their website: https://www.ndsu.edu/soilhealth/?page_id=3992. The USDA Risk Management Agency also provides informational Preventive Planting resources that outlines the standards, establishment factors, commonly asked questions and more: https://www.rma.usda.gov/en/Topics/Prevented-Planting. Additional USDA resources can also be found at https://www.farmers.gov/prevented-planting.

At Pulse USA, we’re here each & every day committed to helping you and your farming or ranching operation succeed. It all starts with a seed and we would love the opportunity to show you how devoted we are to our customers by assisting you with any Preventive Plant questions & recommendations that you need. If you’re interested in customizing a mix to meet your particular goals, we’re always happy to assist you in formulating your own custom mixture. You can call our office at 888-530-0734 and talk to one of our experienced team members, follow us on social media or look more throughout our website. If you’re facing Prevent Plant acres this year, we’re here to help you and we’re only a phone call away!