Spring Forage Pea: Fast Nitrogen and Forage in 3 Months

0:00 [music]

0:04 All right, well we are standing beside our March 18th planted 4010 spring pea test plot here. So, today is June 16th, so we've got just right at 3 months of growth on these guys and I am really pleased with the amount of biomass we have out of these. So, March

0:21 18th here in Nebraska, these peas they came out of the ground, they survived quite a few frosts and late spring freezes and I think they even had some snow on them. But came through all that just fine cuz your 4010, your spring peas, they're cold tolerant to about 20°. So, these are never going to

0:37 Overwinter in Nebraska. You'd have to go really far south before overwintering becomes an option. But for a spring crop, there's a lot to like here. You know, if you're looking for a spring nitrogen crop, granted, you know, June 16th here in Nebraska, these would have been

0:51 Terminated and we'd have our spring crops in. But I mean, you could have the ability to grow 100 plus pounds of nitrogen in the springtime with these guys. They work great with oats or peas or more diverse spring mixes. So, whether we're talking forage, whether we're talking nitrogen fixing, just...

1:05 Generally, you know, for soil health and they've got the flowers for pollinators, it's a really versatile cover crop.

1:11 Yeah, it's one of our favorite things to plant in the spring because you're getting the dual benefits of excellent forage. Now, there's no weeds in here at all. So, these really will.

1:21 Choke out the weeds once they get going. They're really viny. They tendril out really well. Plus, you're getting the nitrogen fixing ability of these. And they're doing that because they are a legume. And so, I just want to pull this out.

1:41 These are falling in on each other, but look at the biomass and the growth on this thing. Now, if we had this mixed with some oats or some spring triticale or something like that, they would climb even better and stand up even better. Big hollow stems, so these are

2:13 So, it's very important when you plant these legumes that you get the right legume inoculants on here to get to maximize that nodulation.

2:21 And again, we would want to see this with something else. Peas by themselves can be pretty good, but with oats or triticale or barley, they're excellent.

2:31 And just to give you an indication of how prolific these can be with nitrogen production, Nathan, we just saw some tests come back from Ward Labs. I think you had a customer that planted a spring mix of primarily 4010 peas. There were some other things in there, but that was coming back at what? 170.

2:49 180 pounds of nitrogen.

2:51 Yeah, it was an organic customer. Had like 20 pounds of oats with the peas, but the peas were most of the mix and he crimped that down and his corn's in the ground now. And this was what, 10 days ago probably when he flipped that and sent it in.

3:04 You know, early June, you could, I think you could March plant peas and by the 1st of June, generally count on 140 to 150 pounds of nitrogen. And it's going to be relatively available nitrogen because these things are going to break down quickly, release that nitrogen for that corn crop. It's not going to keep it tied up like cereal rye or something would. So, 40-10 spring planted peas, excellent option for you.