Pre-Bean Cover Crop Mix: Cereal Rye, Rapeseed, and Flax for Soybeans

0:00 This is our pre-bean mix. It's a three-way mix of cereal rye, rapeseed, and flax. So, the idea here is you have

0:07 Three species, three plant families, planted in the fall ahead of soybeans.

0:11 This is October 10th established. We're

0:14 Standing here in early June. This would normally be terminated three or four weeks prior and have the beans already.

0:20 Planted into it. In pretty much all across the US, the flax in this mix is supposed to winter kill. But if you get

0:26 It established early enough in the fall, you can get a fair amount of flax to grow and get all the benefits of that.

0:31 Plant brings to your system before it winter kills. The rapeseed's a little sparse in the mix this winter, but

0:37 That's a good taproot. That's a brassica. And then, primarily, it's cereal rye because cereal rye ahead of

0:46 To winter kill and not be showing up out here in the spring? And the reason for that is we want some diversity, but

0:52 There's not a lot of things that will overwinter. They're not going in at super high rates. It's not a big part of.

0:58 The cost of this mix. That's mostly the rye. But we're still getting some of the diversity of root exudates. Flax is

1:05 Such a great crop at hosting mycorrhiza fungi. I think it needs 30 days, not necessarily before frost cuz frost won't kill flax or the rapeseed, but before you get really cold, like dropping down into the mid-upper teens. For a lot of us, that'll take us out to mid-November. That still gives us a window of opportunity. And then, of course, as you move south, you have additional opportunities to add diversity.