With corn silage a few weeks behind schedule, farmers might be tempted not to plant that acreage to a cover crop.

The planting window is quickly closing for getting a cover crop in the ground and fully realizing the benefits, but these benefits far outweigh any time saved by not planting the crop.

Anyone applying manure will see a 50 percent nitrogen savings when applied to a cover crop, even through the winter months. If nitrogen is around $400 per ton, then that's a savings of $22 per cow over a five-month period.

Cover crops, specifically rye and winter wheat, are excellent nitrogen scavengers and will not only hold applied nutrients but also seek out any nutrients left from previous crops and will take up and hold these nutrients releasing them once the crop is killed.

With their fibrous root systems, cover crops help break up surface compaction, the most common field compaction, from silage removal as well as winter manure applications. By removing this compaction, the soil will hold more water and warm up quicker next spring allowing timelier planting.

Cover crops also help reduce weed pressure by reducing winter annuals and delaying germination of summer annuals.

To help encourage the adoption of cover crops, the Natural Resources Conservation Service offers two programs that offset planting costs and reward farmers for the planting.

The Environmental Quality Incentives Program provides incentives from $25 to $35 per acre per year for any cover crop planted following silage corn. Producers are eligible up to three years, but the field is only eligible for payment once.

A new program, the Conservation Stewardship Program, rewards farmers for good conservation they have already adopted like no-till and cover crops. Payments and ranking are primarily based on the level of conservation already adopted, so more resource conserving operations will see a higher contract amount per acre, which typically average $15 to $20 per acre per year.

Those who haven't adopted many conservation practices like no-till or cover crops can use this program to try them as well as be rewarded for the conservation they have already adopted.

Eligible practices do not have to meet NRCS specifications and cover a whole host of typical farming operations, such as: hay production, strip cropping, manure and fertilizer record keeping, and the use of GMO crops.

Producers interested in either of these programs are encouraged to contact our office at 724-482-4800, Ext. 108.

Andy Gaver is a conservationist with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in Butler County.