An alternative to aerial broadcast seeding is to use a highboy rig that can go through fully grown corn to apply cover crops into tall corn. This can be a more precise, albeit slower, means of interseeding into crops prior to harvest. Using drop tubes, the seed can be placed beneath the leaf canopy and thus avoid losing seed in the corn leaf whirls. Some creative individuals have gone one step further by mounting sickle bar mowers on these machines, with which they mow off the corn just above the ears at time of black layer at the same time as they seed. This allows more sunlight through the corn canopy, creates mulch to keep the soil surface moist, and increases the rate of grain drying by providing better air movement and less shade over the exposed ears, allowing for an earlier harvest.
